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The potato will soon be free of disease
By: Charlotte Price Persson, Journalist
7th October 2011 pm. 03:51 1 comment
Topics: Biotechnology, DNA, Nutrition, Genetics, Potatoes, Agriculture, Food
Potato genome is the first time ever been mapped, and the research team with Danes midst is now fully engaged in using the new knowledge to breed new and improved potato varieties. Disease resistance is at the top of the list.

The new potato varieties contain fewer residues. It is especially important for the production of potato chips, as it gives black bars on the chips and is unhealthy
A potato is a potato is a potato. Not?
No, not quite. Far from it actually. Potatoes are highly sophisticated plants. Where humans have two chromosomes have four potatoes. Their genome is thus four times as large as ours.
This year we succeeded for the first time an international team of researchers with two Danes among mapping the potato genome. This knowledge can be used to develop new and improved potato varieties.
"From a plant biological viewpoint, it is equally interesting to know how potato genome looks like it from a physiological point of view is to know about the kidney in humans," says Associate Professor Kåre Lehmann Nielsen, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology at Aalborg University. He is part of the international research teams.
One of the most important trait you want to breed, the disease resistance of potatoes, among other things, must withstand the deadly plant disease potato blight.

Facts
DNA sequencing is the reading of the genetic code in a particular piece of DNA. Sometimes reads scientists just one part of a particular gene, other times it reads the whole organism's DNA, then the genome.
The first bacterial genome was determined in 1955, the first virus genome in 1976 and the first human genome in 2001.
With the genome sequence in hand, researchers can select good parent plant as a basis for processing with greater certainty than before. For example, what plants should be chosen as parents for new varieties to get as much genetic diversity as possible. Currently, researchers are interested in the great diversity of developing a range of new features - such as disease resistance.
"When we develop new potato varieties is a priority to have increased resistance genes to disease. The research may now become systematic and accelerated with the new knowledge, "says Kåre Lehmann Nielsen.
Disease resistance is the characteristic that is thrown for the most money, says Kåre Lehmann Nielsen, and therefore it will probably be what will be grown first.
"It's hard to say exactly when it will succeed in making the potato disease resistant. Some work is already underway, but I would expect that you will have commercial field trials of 5-7 years of varieties of techniques based on knowledge of the genome sequence. Then it will probably take another 5-7 years to produce seed enough to varieties may be important in agricultural production, "says Kåre Lehmann Nielsen.
"All we know for sure is that the process is now speeded up significantly, because we know the potato genome sequence."

Potato late blight is a pretty creepy plant disease that causes potato inedible. It keeps her occupied in July, and the moist, Danish summers are ideal for its spread.
With the new knowledge about the potato genome in reserve, you can shorten the time it takes to develop new potato varieties. Even much.
Until now, potato, also known as 'processing', demanded that they chose some suitable parents pollinated them and collected their seeds. First, the year after the seeds are planted, then you should wait until they grew large and set tubers. After another year wait could tubers are planted and after three years they had grown large enough that scientists could analyze the traits they were interested in and select the plants they would proceed.
Now, the process shortened to a few weeks. Knowing the potato genome, one can relatively easily develop molecular markers that may indicate the presence of the properties that you wish to breed. Then one can in fact already in potato frøstadie investigate whether it just the genetic variations that you look after.
"When you do plant, it will be limited by how many plants you can grow. It may sound trite, but fundamentally it can be compared with a raffle. Your odds depend on how many tickets you buy - you might want to plant 100,000 seeds, but have no space and can afford more than 250, "says Kåre Lehmann Nielsen.
"Instead of planting in the dark, we have now found some a priori assumptions that we bother to plant the seeds. It increases our chances of winning the draw significantly. "
Biggest challenge was to make inbreeding
Facts
A base in the DNA context is a 'letter' of DNA (either A, G, C or T). Since DNA is usually double stranded, we speak of base pairs, as there always are two (one on each strand).
It is the first time that the scientists succeed in identifying a plant genome in 'asteride' or 'solanaceous'. Other asterid are:
Tomatoes

Pepper

Aubergines

Tobacco

Coffee

To identify a plant genome will, under normal circumstances make a plant that was so 'clean' in its genetic expression as possible.
In practice this means that self-pollinate a plant and selecting a variant of the plant, which is totally inbred. However, it is impossible to do with the potato plant by natural means, because potatoes can not be self-pollination.
Therefore, the researchers' first challenge is to find a variant of the potato, which made it possible to fabricate a clever survival inbred plant using artificial methods.
The artificially inbred plant DNA was then isolated. Because you can not handle the very large DNA molecules, which form the chromosomes, one needs to determine the sequence of a lot of tiny DNA, which can then collect as best you can.
Facts
Potato late blight the plants to rot, making them inedible. This plant disease does the most damage in potatoes, but can also attack tomato and several other species in the nightshade family.
Potato late blight came to Europe in the 1800s and spread like an epidemic in European potato fields. It went hard over large parts of Europe's population was dependent on the potato as a basic foodstuff.
Especially in Ireland was the potato has become a basal diet and then "potatofungi" broke out, walked more than one million Irishmen. It later became known as' The Irish Potato Famine. "
"Therefore we need to tear them to pieces, sequencing each piece separately and assemble them again," says Kåre Lehmann Nielsen.
Approximately 100 billion base pairs was sequenced in 700 million pieces in order to map the entire genome. Afterwards was the 1-2 percent of this sequence, which constitutes the interesting genes identified and it was here that the Danish scientists really played a role.
The Danes made a biological prediction
"The process of assembling the sequences are at least as long as it takes to sequence the DNA in the first place. In addition, only 1-2 percent, as we really are interested in, while the remaining 98-99 percent is popularly called 'junk DNA' which among others are remnants of viruses. It is extremely difficult to identify what's what, and software is already available from other genome projects are not worth much, "says Kåre Lehmann Nielsen.
"When you produce something like software, it's almost over, each time you take to a new species because the genome is very different from plant to plant. We have helped to create a procedure which is supported by experimental data to determine which parts of DNA that is relevant for us. "
The 1-2 percent usable DNA is protein-genes, and they are interesting because they are the cell uses to produce messengerRNA (mRNA). Apart from them can mRNA isolated and sequenced separately - you can, you can also figure out what DNA looks like.
If you have to look for a foursome on a football field, it is also very nice to know where it starts and ends. "
- Kåre Lehmann Nielsen, Associate Professor
"Our model can validate 85 percent of the genes, ie sequences without error," says Kåre Lehmann Nielsen.
Older methods have been able to validate more than 65 percent of the genes.
One of the world's most important food
The potato is the world's third most important food after wheat and rice, and in 2009 production reached over 330 million tons.
"From potato tuber you get 2.5 times as many calories as corn and other grains per. hectares, and that's important when you consider that we have a third world to be fed, "says Kåre Lehmann Nielsen.
"In this respect, rice even less useful than corn, so you can see now that many risdyrkende countries, especially China, have begun to grow potatoes in a big way - they can see that the rice is not enough to feed the steadily growing population. "
For the same reason there is great interest in developing new and improved potato varieties. The ergonomic features which you want to improve the potato is among other things:
Improved disease resistance
Less need for water (not essential in Denmark, but important in other countries)
Higher yields from crops
Large plants can stand closer and thus fill the smaller field
Plants that can give rise to new interesting varieties (for example for food use, where one is interested in improving the taste)
High starch content and low levels of toxins (half of the potato production is used to make starch)
Not too many residues (especially relevant for the production of potato chips. If there are many residues in potatoes, they will caramelise during the production of chips, resulting in black borders on the chips - it tastes bad, looks bad, and it is unhealthy)
Together with the Agricultural Potato Fund, which is Denmark's only potato processing company, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology at Aalborg University has started a collaboration in which the future self will grow new potato varieties and create modern breeding.