Construction of an integrated microsatellite and key morphological characteristic database of potato varieties on the EU common catalogue

The European Union Common Catalogue (EUCC) for potato contains over 1000 varieties. Each year member states add varieties to the list after they have undergone Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) testing according to international guidelines. A rapid and robust method for variety identification to aid the management and maintenance of existing variety collections and for the screening of new candidate varieties would therefore be a highly useful tool for DUS testing stations. A database containing key morphological characteristics and microsatellite data was constructed for varieties on the 2006 list of the EUCC for potato. Rules for scoring SSR markers in different laboratories were established to allow a harmonized scoring of markers. Almost all varieties (99.5%) were shown to have unique molecular profiles and in pair wise comparisons 99.99% of all variety pairs could be distinguished. This clearly shows the versatility of the markers and database for identifying potato samples.