The Canon of Potato Science: 1. Genetic Diversity and Genebanks

摘要

Genebanks manage germplasm—raw materials for breeding and research. The purview of genetic diversity and genebanks with respect to the potato crop is the wild and cultivated tuber-bearing members of genus Solanum, perhaps also some very closely related non-tuber-bearing taxa. Potato is extraordinary in its breadth of related wild species (typically populations maintained as botanical seed), that are relatively amenable to use in cultivar breeding. There is also a great diversity of primitive cultivated landraces (maintained clonally as tubers or in vitro), and, of course, thousands of named clonal cultivars, breeding and genetic stocks from nearly 200 years of modern breeding. Capturing all diversity ex situ is beyond available physical and financial resources, so the challenge of genebank managers is to find the most efficient means to maximize their service with respect to the five genebank functions.