RE S EARCH Breeding station Meijer now focuses on resistant potato varieties The new Meijer laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art technology. It makes DNA marker-driven breeding possible; this is a breeding technique that speeds up the finding of new, resistant varieties. Heselmans. The working of this technique lies already hidden in the name. In simple words, a marker can be envisaged as a unique flag that is part of a particular gene, the breeder explains. At this moment, there are already quite a lot of potato genes with concomitant flags (markers) of which the characteristics are known. Such a known gene can be a gene with resistance to Phytophthora, for example. ‘With the marker technology in the new laboratory, we can observe that flag and gene as a ribbon with a unique bar pattern. If the bar pattern corresponds with a familiar marker, than the ribbon in the tested plant tissue lights up and we know that the gene with the Phytophthora resistance is present. This is therefore an efficient method to determine whether or not a plant is resistant, and you only need tiny bits of leaf to run the test. This has the advantage that we can test our seedlings quicker and at an early stage. To give you an idea of what the effect of speed can be: with the more out-of-date breeding techniques it took about forty years before you could have introduced proper resistance from a wild variety into a cultured variety. With marker technology the period has been reduced to fifteen years.’ On to multiple Phytophthora resistance It is Heselmans’ biggest wish to speed up breeding resistant potato varieties with are not susceptible to many diseases’, continues the breeder. ‘An important condition is that we strengthen our gene pool and that is exactly what is possible with a laboratory like this. What we need is more and improved parents for our crossings, because it means that we can cross more directly. In addition, we would like to expand our sowing programme further and we can do that by adopting stricter selection procedures. This is how we increase our chances of success. It is just a tale of statistics So far, breeding has always been a rather tedious story. By using new, marker-driven breeding, that search for the desired characteristics is now much faster, according to the new techniques he now has at his disposal. ‘If we could be first to present a variety with multiple resistance genes to Phytophthora, wouldn’t that be wonderful.’ The company is able to work with marker technology for many years to come, without having to apply GMO, says Heselmans. ‘This means that we can continue to breed and select in the classic way, but then with aid of new technology. The hobby breeders – which account for approximately 10 percent of the breeding material - continue to play an important role in this, even if the costs per seedling are increasing. The fact is that hobby breeders are our extra eyes and ears. They are the people with practical experi38 Potato World 2009 • number 4 Pagina 37

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