The Story Behind Reduced Susceptibility to Soft Rot Disease in Potato

As diseases are still a major challenge in potato production and can cause serious crop losses both in the field and during storage, it is essential to breed potato plants that are naturally more resistant to diseases.

This thesis explores how we can make potato less susceptible to diseases, particularly to bacterial soft rot by elimination of susceptibility. Therefore, genetic factors associated with bacterial soft rot prevalence in seed tubers were identified that can be selected against in classical breeding. Also, through targeted disruption of susceptibility (S) gene, we could reduce the susceptibility to bacterial soft rot but also fungal diseases. In addition, technological challenges to deploy this knowledge for NGT breeding were explored.

So, the knowledge gained from this thesis will contribute to the development of potato varieties that are less susceptible to soft sot disease. This will result in higher seed tuber quality, reduced losses during storage, and all together in more efficient and sustainable potato production.