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.
