Fredericton Research and Development Centre

Franklin, M.T., Wong, W., Uriel, Y., and S. Hann. 2023. Strawberry blossom weevil research update. Horticultural Growers' Short Course, Abbotsford, BC (oral presentation). January 26, 2023.

MacDonald JL, Franklin M, Hann S. 2022. A more inclusive biovigilance approach to pest management: Case study of the strawberry blossom weevil. Joint Annual Meeting: Entomological Society of America, Entomological Society of Canada, Entomological Society of British Columbia. 6 Nov 2022. Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Fighting against potato greening
Louis G. Sebarese LG1, Mohsin Zaidi1, Christian Lacroix2, Fatima Mitterboek3, Benoit Bizimungu3, and Bourlaye Fofana1
1Charlottetown Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 440 University Avenue, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, C1A 4N6, Canada
2University of Prince Edward Island, 550 University Avenue, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, C1A 4P3, Canada
3Fredericton Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 4Z7, Canada
Potato is the largest vegetable crop in Canada, with an export value of $1.8B in 2019. As a major food source, potato nutritional quality and safety are critical for the public health. Potato greening, also known as potato sunburn, causes 2-3% loss at the farm gate and up to 17% during postharvest and retail storage. It results from a de novo synthesis of chlorophyll in the cortical parenchyma cells under the periderm after light exposure and leads to a simultaneous formation of toxic steroidal glycoalkaloids (SGAs). Whereas chlorophyll itself is not a health hazard, SGAs are toxic to humans and animals. Development of potato cultivars that are resistant to light-induced greening is a viable strategy for an economic and environmental sustainability. We will present and discuss our approach and preliminary results towards an understanding of the tuber greening phenomenon in potato.

Potato greening: gaining an understanding through ‘omics approaches
K. Dougherty1, T. F. Mitterboeck1*, M. Lague1, M. Zaidi2, B. Bizimungu1, and B. Fofana2. 1Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada E3B 4Z7 (e-mail:fatima.mitterboeck@agr.gc.ca); and 2Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada C1A 4N6.

Potato ‘greening’ occurs when tubers are exposed to light, and results from a de novo synthesis of chlorophyll and a simultaneous formation of steroidal glycoalkaloids, which are toxic to humans and animals. Potato is the largest vegetable crop in Canada, and this greening causes substantial loss of products. Currently, there are no potato cultivars that are resistant to light–induced greening available on the market. The goal of this study is to understand the genetic components and molecular mechanisms of light-induced greening, and to use this knowledge to develop gene-editing tools to generate cultivars resistant to greening. From a core germplasm collection of over 800 mutant potato clones, two clones were observed to be tolerant to light-induced greening. These two non-greening clones, along with a greening control, underwent whole genome sequencing as well as transcriptomic sequencing after light exposure. Here, we will show our findings on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and structural variants (SV) that differentiate the non-greening from greening clones. Deploying the non-greening trait into popular potato cultivars would be of high interest to the industry and stakeholders both for tuber appearance, quality, safety, marketability, and food waste reduction.