Genomic prediction Tetraploid potato.

The objective of plant breeding is to develop genetically superior cultivars. The set of traits for which new varieties should be superior depends on societal, environmental and consumer demands. Improved yield performance is always on the list of desiderata, followed by improved quality. Breeding in potato was and is aimed at developing tetraploid cultivars. The tetraploid character of potato cultivars together with its vegetative reproduction made breeding in potato a time and resource consuming process. Genomic selection on the basis of high density marker profiles or sequence information is a strategy to speed up the breeding process. This methodology requires in addition to markers or sequences also a statistical prediction methodology. In this project, one of the major objectives will be the development of genomic prediction and selection methods for tetraploid potato. The project will not only address yield performance, but also stability of performance. For training and validation of genomic prediction models, phenotypic data and multi-environment trials will be executed including diploid and tetraploid germplasm. At the genotypic side, the tetraploid diversity panel will be sequenced (>200 genotypes), as will be founder and other important diploid genotypes. Low and medium density genotyped diploid and tetraploid genotypes will be imputed using sequence information. This project will produce genomic prediction methodology to speed up potato breeding at both tetraploid and diploid level for yield, quality and stability. As unique feature of this project, genomic prediction methodology will be developed to assist selection at diploid level by training models at the tetraploid level. Therefore, we will develop genomic prediction methods across ploidy levels.