Abstract
The potato is the world’s fourth largest food crop and is a staple in many diets around the world. In addition to being a source of highly digestible carbohydrate and nutritionally complete protein, the potato is also an excellent source of other essential nutrients and vitamins. A single 150 g tuber provides up to 45% of the recommended daily allowance for vitamin C, 10% vitamin B6, 8% niacin, 6% folate as well as significant amounts of other essential mineral nutrients required for human health. The potential for additional human health benefits of potatoes can be even broader due to the antioxidant properties of certain potato constituents. Of particular significance is the fact that vitamin and nutrient content has not been a focus of most potato breeding efforts. Currently released varieties have been selected for disease resistance, process quality, and other agronomic traits. Limited studies have shown that potato germplasm contains a wide-range of phytonutrients and there is ample opportunity for significant increases in the nutrient content of potatoes through conventional breeding programs. In addition, there is an ever-increasing body of evidence that the use of transgenic technologies can raise nutrient content still higher and introduce additional vitamins and other beneficial compounds not normally present in potato tubers or other storage organs. It was the intent of this symposium to bring together experts to assess current knowledge of potato nutrient content, preand postharvest management strategies for enhancing or maintaining nutritional quality, and prospects for further improvements of nutritional value of potatoes through conventional breeding and transgenic manipulation. It is hoped that the information presented in this symposium stimulates greater interest in this exciting topic and serves as an impetus for future research directed toward the nutritional improvement of the potato and benefits to human health. Proceedings articles from the symposium:
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