De Novo Domestication Concept for Potato Germplasm Enhancement

Anastasiya A Egorova,Sophia V Gerasimova,Alisa I Barchuk,Ivan N Fomin,Nadezhda A Chalaya

doi:10.3390/agronomy12020462

Anastasiya A Egorova, Sophia V Gerasimova + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12020462

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Abstract

Wild potato germplasm serves as a natural pool of agronomically valuable traits for potato breeding, such as resistance to pathogens and abiotic stresses, quality, and consumer-oriented traits. The introgression of these traits into cultivated potato is hampered by the different kinds of incompatibility and linkages between desirable and undesirable features in hybrid progeny. The trait donor improvement via correction of negative characteristics prior to hybridization to domestic potato can be a solution to the linkage drag problem. The de novo domestication concept for developing new crops using gene editing technologies was previously proposed and performed for tomato and physalis. In this review, we collected information about donor properties of different wild potato species and developed a strategy for potato germplasm enhancement using the de novo domestication approach. The possible modifications of several candidate genes responsible for undesirable traits in wild potato, including high steroidal glycoalkaloid content, self-incompatibility, tuberization under short day conditions, and long stolons are proposed. The current challenges and future prospects of implementing the de novo domestication strategy for potato are discussed.

Highlights

Potato germplasm enhancement suggests the transfer of valuable traits from wild to cultivated potato [2]
We discuss a strategy for potato de novo domestication considering the enhancement of potato germplasm as the main practical goal
We provide information about positive and negative characteristics of wild potato species

Summary

Introduction

The loss of natural genetic diversity is a complex problem in modern potato breeding. A recently proposed strategy for modern crop breeding is de novo domestication, an approach aiming to convert wild species into domesticated crops using genome editing methods [5]. In the past five years, the progress in genome sequencing and gene function research has allowed the identification of key genes related to major domestication-associated traits for many crops, including potato [10]. The application of the de novo domestication concept requires appropriate gene and genotype selection. If de novo domestication is considered as a way to create new domestic crops, the selection of one or few wild potato genotypes seems a very difficult challenge. The selection of donor genotypes for valuable traits and their modification in order to eliminate or correct the most undesirable characteristics can accelerate the process of elite potato germplasm enhancement. We discuss a strategy for potato de novo domestication considering the enhancement of potato germplasm as the main practical goal

Pros and Cons of Wild Species for Potato Breeding

Agronomically Important Genes of Wild Potato

Candidate Genes for Correction of Undesirable Traits in Wild Potato

The Strategy for Trait Donor Improvement

Findings

Conclusions