Federal researchers in Atlantic Canada are seeing to growth of a new strain of potato that is well adapted to growing circumstances brought on by climate change. Bourlaye Fofana, an investigative scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, spearheads a team in Charlottetown that has studied wild potato diversities native to the South American Andes and that displays potential to help the growth of a more drought-resistant potato for North American markets.
There are as many as 5,000 potato varieties worldwide, says the Agriculture Division, and that high number has reduced the genetic variances between many of them, making some potatoes less resilient to viruses and climate change. We see many difficulties because genetic variety among these cultured commercial varieties is fairly narrow, Fofana said in a discussion. With climate change and heat waves, this absence of genetic assortment could be a big problem in the future.
Most commercial assortments of potatoes are of tetraploid beginning — they have four duplicates of each chromosome in their DNA, with two duplicates congenital from each plant parent. Fofana has been working with wild potato varieties inherent to Peru that have two duplicates of each chromosome and are identified as diploid. He said the chromosome change makes the wild potato diversity easier to work within the lab. It is easier to discover (genetic) marker; so, if you find your marker in diploids, it can be utilized in a tetraploid, he said.
Fofana said the wild potatoes are smaller than usual commercial varieties but appear the same. He has been working on diploids since 2014 and is getting replicas that are feasible in terms of yield, tuber size, and quality. We know, for instance, that the starch content is fairly good and the processing quality is above acceptable. Fofana and his team of scientists, along with researchers in Kentville, N.S., and a scientist in Chile, have assessed 384 diploid potato clones for drought tolerance and plant maturity. Of those, 127 were indicated to be late-maturing and tolerant to drought situations while nine were early to moderate-late maturing and drought tolerant.
Fofana said he is “very thrilled” about the possibility of the study findings. Because in our group we have diploid (potatoes) that are early maturing and this indicates that you can plant it and it can produce a predictable yield as early as possible, he said. “We also have some replicas that can grow over a longer period.”
The study by Fofana and his team is realized as a significant first step scientifically. About 50 of the most hopeful clones are being handed over to the department’s breeding database in Fredericton for additional study. At the Fredericton facility, the potato duplicates will be assessed for size and shape along with yield possibility and cooking and processing personalities. After that, they could be released as potato variations, or their seeds, plants, or plant fragments can be used in potato breeding. Fofana said developing resilience in harvests is becoming progressively important as circumstances grow drier and hotter, even in prime mounting areas in Atlantic Canada.
