Mutational genetics in diploid potatoes and pre/post-harvest control of toxicants

Cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the third most consumed food crop after rice and wheat. Potato is an auto tetraploid crop species having a highly heterozygous genetic base and a complex genome making its genetic studies tedious. Recently, diploid potato breeding has regained interest in the potato genetics community. Genetically, diploid potatoes are easy to work with and can be used in the cultivated potato breeding process as genetic resources and also they can be grown on their own as varieties. However, diploid breeding continuum faces many challenges including anti-nutritional factors and self-incompatibilities. Whereas conventional breeding strategies contributed to the releasing of varieties with low SGA, substantial resources are still required to minimizing these anti-nutritional factors. Recently, we developed and characterized an ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenized pre-breeding diploid potato population for identifying lines with low anti-nutritional factors. The data will be presented and discussed in relation to the high potential for diploid potatoes as a complement to tetraploid potatoes and in pre-and post-harvest management contexts.