Revolutionizing potato variety development for climate smart agriculture

Funding period: 2019-2024
Lead: Helen Tai
Total GRDI funding: $1,353,572

Potato is Canada's largest vegetable crop, generating $1.2B in farm gate receipts and exports of $1.6B in 2016. Canadian potato producers face a number of serious challenges, including increasing environmental and economic costs in production, stemming from the high input needs of potato cultivation and the plant's inherent susceptibility to a range of biotic and abiotic stresses. The goal of this project will be to combine state-of-the-art genomics technologies with high throughput phenotyping and genomic prediction modelling to develop innovative data-driven variety selection for potato breeding. Application of these new efficient, high-throughput, genomic and phenomic tools into AAFC's Potato Breeding Program will reduce the cost of potato breeding while increasing precision, accuracy and selection intensity. Outcomes of this project will allow superior potato varieties to be developed sooner, making potato breeding better able to respond to changing environments and consumer preferences.

Publications

  • Achakkagari SR, Kyriakidou M, Gardner KM, De Koeyer D, De Jong H, Strömvik MV, Tai HH. 2022. Genome sequencing of adapted diploid potato clones. Frontiers in plant science 13. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.954933
  • Achakkagari SR, Bozan I, Anglin NL, Ellis D, Tai HH, Strömvik MV. 2021. Complete mitogenome assemblies from a panel of 13 diverse potato taxa. Mitochondrial DNA Part B 6:894-897. http://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2021.1886016
  • Achakkagari SR, Kyriakidou M, Tai HH, Anglin NL, Ellis D, Strömvik MV. 2020. Complete plastome assemblies from a panel of 13 diverse potato taxa. PLoS ONE 15(10):e0240124. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240124
  • Achakkagari SR, Tai HH, Davidson C, Jong HD, Strömvik MV. 2021. The complete plastome sequences of nine diploid potato clones. Mitochondrial DNA Part B 6:811-813. https://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2021.1883486
  • Achakkagari SR, Tai HH, Davidson C, Jong HD, Strömvik MV. 2021. Complete mitogenome analysis reveals recombination in potato mitogenomes, DNA Research, 28 (4):dsab009. https://doi.org/10.1093/dnares/dsab009
  • Agre PA, Darkwa K, Olasanmi B, Kolade O, Mournet P, Bhattacharjee R, Lopez-Montes A, De Koeyer D, Adebola P, Kumar L, Asiedu R, Asfaw A. 2022. Identification of QTLs Controlling Resistance to Anthracnose Disease in Water Yam (Dioscorea alata). Genes.13(2):347. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13020347
  • Agre P, Nwachukwu C, Olasanmi B, Obidiegwu J, Nwachukwu E, Adebola P, De Koeyer D, Asfaw A. 2020. Sample preservation and plant sex prediction in white guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata poir.). Journal of Applied Biotechnology Reports 7(3):145-151. http://doi.org/10.30491/JABR.2020.224143.1201
  • Asfaw A, Aderonmu DS, Darkwa K, De Koeyer D, Agre P, Abe A, Olasanmi B, Adebola P, Asiedu R. 2020. Genetic parameters, prediction, and selection in a white Guinea yam early-generation breeding population using pedigree information. Crop Science 61(2):1038-1051. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20382
  • Asfaw A, Aderonmu DS, Norman P, Darkwa K, De Koeyer D, Agre P, Kouaku A, Chamba E, Otoo E, Obidiegwu J, Nwachukwu E, Dossou-Aminon IN, Dansi A, Oselebe H, Adebola P, Asiedu R. 2019. Application of predictive breeding in yam improvement for West Africa. Research for Tropical Agriculture 12(2):117-120. https://doi.org/10.11248/nettai.12.117
  • Bhattacharjee R, Agre P, Bauchet G, de Koeyer D, Lopez-Montes A, Lava Kumar P, Abberton M, Adebola P, Asfaw A, Asiedu R. 2020. Genotyping-by-sequencing to unlock genetic diversity and population structure in white yam (Dioscorea rotundata poir.). Agronomy 10(9):1437. http://doi.org/10.3390/AGRONOMY10091437
  • Darkwa K, Agre P, Olasanmi B, Iseki K, Matsumoto R, Powell A, Bauchet G, De Koeyer D, Muranaka S, Adebola P, Asiedu R, Terauchi R, Asfaw A. 2020. Comparative assessment of genetic diversity matrices and clustering methods in white Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata) based on morphological and molecular markers. Scientific Reports 10(1):13191. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69925-9
  • Hoopes G, Meng X, Hamilton JP, Achakkagari SR, et al. 2022. Phased, chromosome-scale genome assemblies of tetraploid potato reveal a complex genome, transcriptome, and proteome landscape that underpin phenotypic diversity. Molecular Plant. 15(3):520-536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2022.01.003
  • Kyriakidou M, Achakkagari SR, Gálvez López JH, Zhu X, Tang CY, Tai HH, Anglin NL, Ellis D, Strömvik MV. 2020. Structural genome analysis in cultivated potato taxa. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 133(3):951-966. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-019-03519-6
  • McCoy HJ, Zeng C, McCoy E, MacKinley P, Vickruck J, Calhoun LA, Tai HH. 2022. Evidence for Cardiac Glycosides in Foliage of Colorado Potato Beetle-Resistant Solanum okadae. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 70(46), 14613-14621. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.2c04311
  • Neilson JAD, Smith AM, Mesina L, Vivian R, Smienk S, De Koyer D. 2021. Potato tuber shape phenotyping using RGB imaging, 11(9):1781. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11091781
  • Norman PE, Paterne AA, Danquah A, Tongoona PB, Danquah EY, Koeyer DD, Ikeogu UN, Asiedu R, Asfaw A. 2020. Paternity assignment in white guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata) half-sib progenies from polycross mating design using SNP markers. Plants 9(4):527. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9040527
  • Parenteau MT, Gu H, Zebarth BJ, Cambouris AN, Lafond J, Nelson A, Nyiraneza J, Davidson C, Lagüe M, Galvez JH, Strömvik MV, Tai HH. 2020. Data mining nitrogen-responsive gene expression for source-sink relations and indicators of n status in potato. Agronomy 10(10):1617. http://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10101617
  • Sugihara Y, Darkwa K, Yaegashi H, Natsume S, Shimizu M, Abe A, Hirabuchi A, Ito K, Oikawa K, Tamiru-Oli M, Ohta A, Matsumoto R, Agre P, de Koeyer D, Pachakkil B, Yamanaka S, Muranaka S, Takagi H, White B, Asiedu R, Innan H, Asfaw A, Adebola P, Terauchi R. 2020. Genome analyses reveal the hybrid origin of the staple crop white Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata). PNAS 117(50):31987-31992. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2015830117
  • Tai HH, Vickruck J. 2022. Potato resistance against insect herbivores. In Insect Pests of Potato, 2nd Edition, A Alyokhin, SI Rondon, Y Gao, eds. Academic Press, pp. 277-296. ISBN: 9780128212370 Insect Pests of Potato - 2nd Edition (elsevier.com)

Contact us

For additional information, please contact:
Genomics R&D Initiative
Email: info@grdi-irdg.collaboration.gc.ca