Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Michigan State University

Breeding - The MSU potato breeding and genetics program is actively producing new germplasm and advanced seedlings that are improved for long-term storage chipping, and resistance to scab, late blight, and Colorado potato beetle.  For the 2024 field season, progeny from about 250 crosses were planted and evaluated.  Of those, the majority were crosses to select for round whites (chip-processing and tablestock), with the remainder to select for yellow flesh, red skin, and specialty market classes. During the 2024 harvest, about 600 selections in a field with high levels of scab were made from the 25,000 seedlings produced.  Most of these first-year selections are segregating for PVY resistance.  All second, third or fourth-year potential chip-processing selections will be tested in January and April 2025 directly out of 45°F (7.2°C) storage.  At the 12-hill and 30-hill evaluation state, about 200 and 60 selections were made, respectively; based on chip quality, specific gravity, scab resistance, late blight resistance and DNA markers for PVY resistance.  Most of our advanced selections now have PVY resistance.  Selection in the early generation stages has been enhanced by the incorporation of the scab and late blight (US-23) evaluations of the early generation material. We are pushing our early generation selections from the 30-hill stage into tissue culture to minimize PVY issues in our breeding and seed stock. 

Chip-Processing - Over 80% of the single hill selections have a chip-processing parent in their pedigree.  We prioritize scab resistance and PVY resistance in our chip-processing selections. Our most promising advanced chip-processing lines are MSBB058-1 (scab resistant), MSDD244-05, MSDD247-07 and MSDD247-11 all combine high specific gravity, earlier maturity and lower blackspot bruising as well as scab and PVY resistance.  We have some newer lines to consider such as from the FF and GG generations. With a successful late blight trial in 2023 and 2024, we were able to confirm resistance in some of our advanced selections. We are using the NCPT trials to identify promising new selections more effectively.

Tablestock - Efforts have been made to identify lines with good appearance with an attractive skin finish, low internal defects, good cooking quality, high marketable yield and resistance to scab, late blight and PVY.  From our breeding efforts we have identified mostly round white lines, but we also have several yellow-fleshed and red-skinned lines, as well as some purple skinned selections that carry many of the characteristics mentioned above. PVY resistance is incorporated into these different table market classes.  Some of the tablestock lines were tested in on-farm trials in 2024, while others were tested under replicated conditions at the Montcalm Research Center.  Promising tablestock lines include MSGG135-1R which is scab and PVY resistant.  We are excited about MSFF031-6 as a scab and PVY resistant round white and MSGG039-11Y as a PVY resistant yellow table line.

Scab - Based upon scab trial, scab resistance is very strong in the breeding program.  We lead the nation in scab resistant lines.  This is evident in the NCPT.  The scab nursery data is also incorporated into the early generation selection evaluation process at Lake City. In the past three years, almost all the advanced selections in the breeding program have moderate to high levels of scab resistance. 

Late Blight - In 2024 we conducted late blight trials at the MSU campus. We inoculated with the US23 genotype and obtained high levels of infection in the susceptible border plants.  The infection progressed and we were able to confirm late blight resistance for Mackinaw, Huron Chipper and numerous breeding lines.

PVY - We are using PCR-based DNA markers to select potatoes resistant to PVY.  Each year since 2013 we are making new crosses, making selections, and expanding the germplasm base that has PVY resistance.  In the past year we tested over 600 progeny for the PVY resistance marker. The marker positive selections were evaluated at Lake City Research Center.  With the development of molecular markers for potato breeding, marker-assisted selection has been incorporated into our routine breeding practice and greatly facilitate the selection process. The advanced selections from the breeding program were evaluated in a field PVY trial on campus in 2024.  The results validated the lines carrying the markers for PVY resistance.  Currently 69% of the selections in the breeding program have PVY resistance with the majority (over 90%) of the advanced breeding lines having PVY resistance.

Colorado Potato Beetle - We made crosses with the best CPB resistant inbred line ‘431”. Using inbred 431 will more likely transmit resistance to a greater percentage of the progeny because the genes related to insect resistance are more likely fixed from inbreeding. In 2023 and 2024 we made selections in the families for tuber appearance on the survivors at the end of the season. We will run detached leaf bioassays in the winter to screen the selfed progeny for resistance.  Further crosses will be made with the resistant lines so we can further adapt the beetle resistant germplasm.

Diploid Breeding - We are now placing more emphasis on the diploid breeding effort because of the advantages the breeding system brings when we introduce the ability to self-pollinate a line.  We have used some inbred lines of S. chacoense that have fertility and vigor to initiate our efforts to develop inbred lines with our own diploid germplasm.    Through 10 years of crossing and selecting we have bred diploid breeding lines that yield and size as well as tetraploid potato varieties.  From 2021-24, we yield tested about over 260 breeding lines.  In 2021 over 30 lines were equal or better than Lamoka and Atlantic in yield.    2022-24 data validate the results from the past years so we are confident that we can develop potato varieties with this new breeding approach.  We are also identifying more lines will excellent tuber appearance.

University of Minnesota

Potato Diversity - With collaborators on the potato 2.0 SCRI we have developed a panel of 97 potato dihaploids generated from diverse commercial tetraploid material. Our lab has been responsible for the selection, characterization, maintenance and distribution of this material. This diversity panel has been distributed to multiple interested academic and industry labs and is undergoing disease testing for submission to the US potato genebank. We have sequenced this population to 20X coverage using Illumina short reads and Sapphire Coronejo (APS graduate student) has used this data to discover that while potato has very high diversity it somewhat unexpectedly has a very low genome wide historical recombination rate

A graduate student, Dr. Muyideen Yusuf built genomic selection models for yield and quality traits based on image analysis software previously developed in our lab. This work is published in The Plant Genome (Yusuf et al., 2024). He extended this work by combining genomic and phenomic selection demonstrating that relationship matrices built from UAV generated spectral data predicts yield better than genomic selection and combining them is the most predictive. This work is under review at the Plant Genome. Finally, Dr. Yusuf extended this work to predicting nitrogen use efficiency from drone data. 

Our work developing tools for genomic and phenomic selection are also published in Endelman et al. (2024) and Feldman et al. (2024) and meta-analysis of community data showing evidence of adaptation in the National Chip Processing Trial is published in Agha et al. (2024). 

We have developed partially inbred diploid lines which we grew out in the field for phenotyping this year and continue to cross dihaploids and male fertility donors to generate diploid F1s. We continue to breed tetraploid potatoes in 4 market classes: red, yellow, russet, and chip. We generated new F1s with a crossing block and evaluated and selected clones from FY1 to FY7. We submitted clones to regional trials in WI, ND, MI, NC, and FL as well as the National Chip Processing Trial. We also conducted small-scale grower trials for some of our fresh market varieties.

We continue to grow our phenotyping capacity to target grower concerns. Undergraduate We developed a protocol for evaluating black spot bruise susceptibility. In collaboration with Dr. Ashish Ranjan in plant pathology we evaluated breeding program varieties for susceptibility to scab and verticillium wilt in nurseries at our trial site. We have mapped a novel QTL for black dot resistance to chromosome 3 using data from collaborators at NDSU and found multiple QTL for powdery scab resistance using  RenSeq  based on data from collaborators at NDSU. We have conducted our second year of an experiment looking at the effect of genotype and mid-season heat on seed potatoes in collaboration with the physiology group at USDA Fargo.

Wisconsin

• Authored/co-authored 6 publications on potato breeding and genetics
• Oral presentations at meetings for the Potato Association of America, the Plant and Animal Genome, the International Conference on Quantitative Genetics, and the Agronomy Society of America
• 2 varieties in the SNAC chip trial, 25 clones in the National Chip Processing Trial, 2 clones in the National Fry Processing Trial
• New USDA-NIFA-AFRI grant to develop and apply software for haplotype reconstruction and genetic analysis in pedigreed potato (and other tetraploid) populations
• Over 10,000 lb of seed shipped to cooperators for trialing

 North Dakota State University

• 1,265 flower clusters were pollinated with a success rate of 45.7% of clusters forming fruit; 263 new families were created. Creation of new families focused on incorporation of disease and pest resistance with nearly 50% of families having a PVY resistant parent.
• In the single-hill nursery, 129 NDSU families, more than 25,000 genotypes were grown, with 215 selections from the NDSU seedling production retained. More than 25,000 unselected seedling tubers (sizes 2-4) were shared with the breeding programs in Idaho, Maine, Texas, Colorado and Minnesota. Out-of-state unselected seedlings were received from ID, ME, TX and CO; 122 out-of-state selections were retained.
• Field trials were conducted at three irrigated sites (Larimore and Oakes, ND, and Hubbard, MN) and three non-irrigated locations (Crystal, Hoople and Fargo) predominantly in grower-cooperator fields. Promising fresh market selections include ND113207-1R, ND1241-1Y, ND1243-1PY, and many more. Outstanding chip processing selections included ND7519-1, ND7799c-1, ND1241-1Y, ND13220C-3, ND1734-4, and ND1852-10. The ND13220C-3 was in the SNAC trial in 2024 with excellent performance at many locations. Fifteen selections with interesting skin/flesh colors and possessing pest/stress resistance(s) were compared to 4 specialty cultivars in the organic demonstration trial on the NDSU campus. Urban agriculturalists and food artisans are the focus for these selections with improved nutritional attributes, organic potential and unique culinary opportunities.
• The NDSU potato breeding project participated in an extension opportunity at the Minnesota Arboretum (Farm at the Arb) with RD Offutt Company, the NDSU/UMN extension project, and the UMN potato breeding program, and Michaels Foods. NDSU advancing selections, ND1241-1Y and ND13244-1PPintoP were included with Red Norland and Russet Burbank and a red-skinned, white fleshed selection from UMN.
• Outstanding selections continuing in the potato breeding pipeline are ND113207-1R (an attractive, high yielding, red skinned white fleshed selection for the fresh market), ND1241-1Y (a dual-purpose, yellow skinned and fleshed, high yielding selection), ND13220C-3 (an environmentally resilient chip processing selection with very high yield potential, and moderate resistance to Verticillium wilt and other diseases), ND13244-1PPintoP (specialty fresh market with purple and white splashed skin and violet flesh), ND1762-19Russ (a russet skinned selection with French fry processing potential and low sugar accumulation), and many others across all market types.

OUTREACH

Minnesota

We participated in the NCPT and associated meetings, the Sand Plains Research Farm Potato Field Day (Becker MN), The Northland Potato Grower's Association Field Day (Hoople, Larimore, and Inkster ND), the Minnesota Area II Potato Growers Short Course (St. Cloud MN), The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association Winter Meeting (Stevens Point, WI), The Area II and NPGA research planning meeting (Alexandria MN), Plant Breeding Day at the Bell Museum (St Paul MN), The Potato Dig at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (St Paul MN). 

Wisconsin

• Presentations at the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Conference and the UW Hancock and Rhinelander Field Days
• Article about potato virus Y resistance published in the Badger Common’Tater

North Dakota State University

Presentations
Breeding and Development of Resilient Potato Cultivars for the Northern Plains. 2024 International Crops Expo. February 231, 2024. Invited
Reducing Bruising 2024 International Crops Expo. February 22, 2024. Invited.
Grand Farm Field Day Crop Breeder Panel. Casselton, ND. March 13, 2024. Invited.
Spuddles, Vader Tots and Small Fries: Let’s Talk Potatoes! Field to Fork Series. Virtual. March 13, 2024. Invited.
Next Gen Ag Panel ‘Everything Potatoes’. Fargo, ND. April 10, 2024. Invited.
NDSU Potato Breeding. NDSU Horticulture Club. NDSU Ag Week. April 16, 2024. Invited.
Potatoes 101. RDO Scout School. June 25, 2024. Invited.
Developing Robust Potato Cultivars for the Northern Plains. Produce Marketing Association North America (PMANA). Grand Farm. Casselton, ND. July 16, 2024. Invited.
NDSU Potato Breeding Update. OREC Field Day. August 1, 2024. Invited.
Developing Robust Potato Cultivars. Northland Potato Growers Association Annual Field Day. August 22, 2024. Larimore, Inkster and Hoople, ND. Invited.

Refereed publications
Agha, HI, JB Endelman, J Chitwood-Brown, M Clough, J Coombs, WS DeJong, DS Douches,
CR Higgins, DG Holm, R Novy, MFR Resende, V Sathuvalli, AL Thompson, GC
Yencho, L Zotarelli, LM Shannon. 2024. Genotype-by-environment interactions and
local adaptation shape selection in the US National Chip Processing Trial. Theoretical
and Applied Genetics. 137:99.
 
Chen, Z, AL Thompson, J Jyoti, HM Hatterman-Valenti. 2024. Influence of storage conditions
on four chipping potato cultivars developed in North Dakota. Plants 13:2868.
https://doi.org/10.3990/plants13202868 
 
Grow, J, AL Thompson, GA Secor, AP Robinson. 2024. Nitrogen and spacing requirements for
advanced chipping selections ND7799c-1 and ND7519-1. American Journal of Potato
Research 101:481-489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12230-024-09974-2
 
Yusuf, M, MD Miller, TR Stefaniak, D Haagenson, JB Endelman, AL Thompson, LM Shannon.
2024. Genomic prediction for potato (Solanum tuberosum) quality traits improved
through image analysis. Plant Genome 2024;e20507 https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20507.
 
Proceedings and Reports:
Thompson, S. 2024. Breeding and development of resilient potato cultivars for the Northern
Plains – 2023 Summary. Minnesota Area II Potato Research and Promotion Council and
Northland Potato Growers Association 2023 Research Reports. On-line: 2024-Complied-Research-Updated-2-19.pdf
 
Extension Publications:
Garden-Robinson, J, J Sufka, and A Thompson. 2024. A pocket guide to preparing potatoes.
FN2238. NDSU Extension, Fargo ND. A Pocket Guide to Preparing Potatoes | NDSU Agriculture