The new potato. Breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future

Potato is the important food crop after wheat and rice, and its nutritious tubers are becoming increasingly popular in the developing world. Keeping up with the demand means adapting the potato to thrive in various soils and climates. It must also resist new threats from pests, disease, heat, and dr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stokstad, E.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99352
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author Stokstad, E.
author_browse Stokstad, E.
author_facet Stokstad, E.
author_sort Stokstad, E.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Potato is the important food crop after wheat and rice, and its nutritious tubers are becoming increasingly popular in the developing world. Keeping up with the demand means adapting the potato to thrive in various soils and climates. It must also resist new threats from pests, disease, heat, and drought. Creating a new potato variety is slow and difficult, but there are new approaches, including genetic engineering. Potato breeders are particularly excited about hybrid diploid breeding, a method that could cut the time required to create new varieties by more than half, make it easier for breeders to combine traits in one variety, and allow farmers to plant seeds instead of bulky chunks of tuber. In addition, breeders will soon have more genetic diversity available to improve cultivated potatoes. Plant collectors are finishing a big effort to find and conserve the hardy wild relatives of potato, which have traits that could make the crop more robust and resilient.
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spelling CGSpace993522025-11-29T05:22:13Z The new potato. Breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future Stokstad, E. potatoes food crops varieties breeding Potato is the important food crop after wheat and rice, and its nutritious tubers are becoming increasingly popular in the developing world. Keeping up with the demand means adapting the potato to thrive in various soils and climates. It must also resist new threats from pests, disease, heat, and drought. Creating a new potato variety is slow and difficult, but there are new approaches, including genetic engineering. Potato breeders are particularly excited about hybrid diploid breeding, a method that could cut the time required to create new varieties by more than half, make it easier for breeders to combine traits in one variety, and allow farmers to plant seeds instead of bulky chunks of tuber. In addition, breeders will soon have more genetic diversity available to improve cultivated potatoes. Plant collectors are finishing a big effort to find and conserve the hardy wild relatives of potato, which have traits that could make the crop more robust and resilient. 2019-02-08 2019-02-08T16:09:18Z 2019-02-08T16:09:18Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99352 en Open Access American Association for the Advancement of Science Stokstad, E. 2019. The new potato. Breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future. Science. ISSN 0036-8075. 363:6427. pp. 574-577.
spellingShingle potatoes
food crops
varieties
breeding
Stokstad, E.
The new potato. Breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future
title The new potato. Breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future
title_full The new potato. Breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future
title_fullStr The new potato. Breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future
title_full_unstemmed The new potato. Breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future
title_short The new potato. Breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future
title_sort new potato breeders seek a breakthrough to help farmers facing an uncertain future
topic potatoes
food crops
varieties
breeding
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99352
work_keys_str_mv AT stokstade thenewpotatobreedersseekabreakthroughtohelpfarmersfacinganuncertainfuture
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