De Novo Domestication Concept for Potato Germplasm Enhancement

Abstract

Wild potato germplasm serves as a natural pool of agronomically valuable traits for potato breeding, such as resistance to pathogens and abiotic stresses, quality, and consumer-oriented traits. The introgression of these traits into cultivated potato is hampered by the different kinds of incompatibility and linkages between desirable and undesirable features in hybrid progeny. The trait donor improvement via correction of negative characteristics prior to hybridization to domestic potato can be a solution to the linkage drag problem. The de novo domestication concept for developing new crops using gene editing technologies was previously proposed and performed for tomato and physalis. In this review, we collected information about donor properties of different wild potato species and developed a strategy for potato germplasm enhancement using the de novo domestication approach. The possible modifications of several candidate genes responsible for undesirable traits in wild potato, including high steroidal glycoalkaloid content, self-incompatibility, tuberization under short day conditions, and long stolons are proposed. The current challenges and future prospects of implementing the de novo domestication strategy for potato are discussed.

Recent developments in the enzymatic modifications of steroid scaffolds

“…SGAs are toxic specialized metabolites found in members of the Solanaceae, such as tomato, potato, and eggplant. [205][206][207][208][209] They are classified into solanidane and spirosolane, based on their skeleton derived from the cholesterol side chain. 210,211 Recently, Mizutani's, Aharoni's, and other research groups identified the biosynthetic pathway of SGAs.…”

Prehistoric Plant Exploitation and Domestication: An Inspiration for the Science of De Novo Domestication in Present Times

“…These traits are typical for domesticated cereal species. For potatoes, a typical tuberous crop, [ 32 ] suggested targeting self-compatibility ( SRNase ), tuberization under long days and compact plants ( SP5G, CDF1 ), low glycoalkaloid content ( GAME —glycoalkaloid metabolism genes) and short stolons ( GA20ox1 ). We note that whereas there are several review papers that discuss opportunities to re-domesticate or de novo domesticate wild, feral or marginally domesticated crops with new breeding technologies, only a few works report to actually have performed the task.…”

The New Green Challenge in Urban Planning: The Right Genetics in the Right Place

“…With regard to germplasm collections, it is important to point out that presenting a high genetic variability also means an increase in the possibility of having in the selected genotypes alleles linked to undesirable or even harmful traits, e.g., the susceptibility to a pathogen or the production of a toxic compound. These alleles can segregate with traits of interest (linkage drag), therefore, during the breeding process, careful work of selection against them is necessary [51][52][53].…”