Somatic Hybridization Between Solanum tuberosum L. (Potato) and Solanum phureja

Solanum tuberosum is the fourth most important food crop in the world, after rice, maize and wheat. The common potato is of ancient origin, originally domesticated as a range of diploid types in South America. Spontaneous tetraploid lines arose in the Lake Titicaca area and these were brought to Europe during the latter part of the 16th century The modern-day cultivated potato is Solanum tuberosum L, a tetraploid species with a chromosome number of 48. (1990) recognised 235 species belonging to the tuberbearing section of the genus Solanum (section petota). Seven of these are cultivated, and the remaining species divided into a diverse hierarchy of sections and series. The group is widely distributed from Southwest USA through Mexico, Central and South America. Solanum phureja Juz.et. Buk. is a member of the series Tuberosa, chromosome number 24, EBN number 2. A wide range of accessions of this species exists, with ca. 200 held in the Common-wealth Potato Collection at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (http: www.scri.sari.ac.uk/). These mainly originate from the Narino, Merida and Sogomoso provinces of Colombia, the Merida province of Venezuela, Crachi and Pichina in Ecuador and La Paz in Bolivia. Within these accessions there are lines with known resistance to a range of pathogens, including Phytopthora infestans (late blight), Pseudomonas solanacearum (bacterial wilt), Erwinia carotovera (soft rot), potato virus Y and Meloidgyne incognita (root-knot nematode).