DEVELOPMENT OF PVX RESISTANT POTATO BREEDING LINES USING MARKER-ASSISTED SELECTION

Abstract

Potato breeding requires a long and laborious study as a based on phenotypic and genotypic selection studies due to its tetraploid and heterozygous plant structure. This research was made to show that the variety development can be faster with molecular assisted breeding. In this research, a short breeding program was applied in order to develop new varieties by taking high dry matter content and PVX resistance as the main criterion. The research was carried out between 2014-2019 and 16.000 F1 potato seeds were used as a genetic material. A hard and effective selection breeding, breeder field observation and PVX markers based on tuber and plant characteristics were selected. In this research, fresh market, French fry and chips variety candidates which have high dry matter content, PVX resistant and higher tuber yield compared to commercial varieties have been developed. According to the results of the research; special breeding programs with two selection criteria can be used to shorten the potato breeding time and commercial candidate varieties with superior properties can be developed. Superior lines that showed to be carrying the markers are strongly recommended to be used by breeders to develop new PVX extreme resistance potato varieties.