Potato: Genetics – The Basics

Last year, I put together a summary of potato color genetics and ever since I have been getting emails asking questions.  A lot of those questions center on how to use the information.  I’m happy to try to answer those questions to the best of my ability, because I think potato genetics are fun.  This […]

Ulluco: Color Genetics – A Familiar Beet

A quick review for those who have not been following our ulluco work: Ulluco is a crop that very rarely sets seed.  In fact, there are only two published reports of ulluco seed production: here and at the University of Turku in the early 1990s.  There is perhaps one published report of seed being found […]

Mashua: Tetraploid Variability

Twelve sets of three tubers each of seedlings out of Blanca mashua. Each is a little bit different, with mostly white or light yellow skin and various shades of red or purple eyes.

The domesticated varieties of mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum) are tetraploid, meaning that they have four copies of each chromosome.  This allows the plant to carry twice the genetic diversity of a diploid organism (like most animals and many plants).  Balanced against that, mashua is most likely an autoploid, meaning that it became tetraploid by doubling its […]

Potato Cytoplasm Types

A diagram of a plant cell, showing the major organelles and structural components.

If it has been a long time since high school biology and you are rusty on the concept of cytoplasm, you can be forgiven.  It’s not something that most of us think about very often, but it is important to potato breeding, so let’s review. Cytoplasm is everything that is inside a cell but outside […]

Potato: Color Genetics

A Summary of Potato Color Genetics Introduction Genes Controlling Color Pigments   Purple and Red   Yellow and Orange Color Distribution   Flower Color   Foliage Color Russeting Known Genotypes Introduction For many crops, you don’t have to search very far to find a nice summary chart of the major genes involved in economically important […]