Significance of the fructose/glucose ratio in screening potato breeding lines with processing potential

Abstract

Low sugar accumulation during low temperature holding is a most sought after characteristic in a potato cultivar utilized for processing. Although this property is largely inherited, the lack of a reliable biochemical test capable of screening large numbers of new breeding lines with low sugar accumulating ability has hampered present selection procedures of plant breeders. This study examined the concentration of individual sugar components and the ratios of sugar components from 80 to 110 day-old plants of three commercial potato cultivars, White Rose, Russet Burbank and Norchip, each with different inherent capacity to accumulate sugars under low temperature holding. By determining the fructose and glucose concentration of potatoes from 110-day old plants and calculating the fructose/ glucose ratio, it was possible at harvest to separate cultivars that accumulate high concentrations of sugars during cold storage from those that accumulate low concentration of sugars