Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HISPOB (HISPOB- High Speed Potato Breeding: securing healthy food for the future) Reporting period: 2016-11-01 to 2017-10-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project Solynta has developed a revolutionary breakthrough in potato breeding. The introduction of diploid potatoes and High Speed Potato Breeding (HiSPoB) makes targeted and predictable breeding in potato now possible. This will speed up the introduction of new innovative varieties. In this project, the possibilities of HiSPoB will be shown. HiSPob will deliver a trait based on several genetic factors in a single cultivar in two years’ time. This trait will be the introduction of resistance to the most threatening potato disease late blight (caused by Phytophthora infestans) into an existing cultivar. Late blight is the single and most important plant disease which can currently only be combated by very intensive use of pesticides. By combining different sources of resistance plants can be made that have different locks against the same intruder. This will make the plant more resistant to the fast evolving Phytophthora strains For the public in general it is important to obtain good potato varieties in a faster way. Varieties that have been grown in an environmental friendly manor. With HiSPoB all new developments leading to improved varieties can be introduced in a relatively short period. Late blight itself is a huge problem for farmers, only in the Eu the costs of combating late blight is estimated on €900M. It is expected that the introduction of potato varieties with a stacked resistance to Phytophthora alone, will already reduce pesticide use in potato with more than 60%. The overall objective is to generate potato plants harbouring different resistance genes to Phytophthora in a single plant. This will be done with diploid potatoes and modern breeding techniques. Resistance sources will originate from different sources and are known to work in different ways. The plants with the different resistance genes will be grown later to demonstrate the effect of the stacked genes. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far The introduction of different resistance sources into diploid potato started with crossing plants with a resistance to known, well performing Solynta plants. This was successful for 6 different resistance sources. The progeny of these crosses were screened with specific DNA markers to check for the presence of the resistance gene. After doing this the plants with a resistance gene have been backcrossed to the same well performing plants. These backcross progenies were again screened for resistance with a specific aim of obtaining plants with this resistance in combination with as much as possible of the well performing Solynta lines. With these plants a new backcross with the well performing plants will be done. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) No progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact was found yet Testing selected line with resistance in field surrounded by susceptible potato plants. Large number of seedlings before screening for best lines
