Heritability and genetic gains for iron and zinc concentration in diploid potato

Abstract

A main breeding target of the International Potato Center (CIP) has been the biofortification of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) with the essential micronutrients iron and zinc. This study assessed the broad‐sense heritability (H2) and genetic gains (ΔGs) achieved for iron and zinc concentrations in potato tubers and their relationships with yield components through three cycles of recurrent selection at the diploid level. Sixty genotypes comprising 17 Andean landraces from a base population called Cycle 0, 21 genotypes from Cycle II, and 22 from Cycle III were grown in field trials over 2 yr to compare micronutrient concentrations and agronomic performance. The effects of cycles and cycles × location interactions were both significant (P < .01) for all characters except tuber yield. High phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation along with high H2 (0.81 ± 0.19 for both iron and zinc) suggested that these parameters were under the control of additive gene effects and could be effectively manipulated by recurrent selection. Large gains of more than 29% iron and 26% zinc were demonstrated. There were slight decreases in dry matter (DM) content of 2 and 5% in Cycles II and III, respectively. Iron concentration had the greatest positive direct effect on total number of tubers per plant, and zinc had a weak negative direct effect on average tuber weight. Selected iron‐ and zinc‐dense genotypes with high, positive general combining ability were identified for use in an interploidy (4x–2x) breeding scheme aimed at increasing the iron and zinc contents of stable, high‐yielding disease and stress‐resistant varieties.

Targeting market segment needs with public-good crop breeding investments: A case study with potato and sweetpotato focused on poverty alleviation, nutrition and gender

“…Also, both potato market segments in East Africa pipeline have a relatively higher anemia prevalence of 30.9% than those in the LAC and the tropical South-East Asia potato pipelines. Recent literature shows that there is an opportunity for breeding programs to introduce iron biofortified potatoes in these segments to combat anemia ( Amoros et al., 2020 ) given the finding that iron absorption from iron-rich potatoes is exceptionally high ( Jongstra et al., 2020 ).…”

Iron Absorption from Iron-Biofortified Sweetpotato Is Higher Than Regular Sweetpotato in Malawian Women while Iron Absorption from Regular and Iron-Biofortified Potatoes Is High in Peruvian Women

“…Thus, these countries are potential targets for iron biofortification of these crops. For both crops, there has been considerable progress in increasing their iron content through conventional breeding (17)(18)(19).…”

The Potato of the Future: Opportunities and Challenges in Sustainable Agri-food Systems

“…Likewise, in developing countries, it contributes to combat micronutrient deficiency, also referred to as hidden hunger, that is a major global public health problem affecting an estimated 2 billion people globally (Bailey et al 2015). Improving the phyto-availability of iron and zinc from potato varieties in order to fortify the tubers for human consumption to reduce global micronutrient malnutrition can be achieved by breeding and agronomic fortification (Kromann et al 2016;Amoros et al 2020;Jongstra et al 2020). When eaten with its skin, a single medium-sized potato of 150 g provides nearly half the daily adult requirement (100 mg) of vitamin C. It is also a good source of vitamins B1, B3, and B6 and minerals such as iron, potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium and contains folate, pantothenic acid, and riboflavin.…”

“…This crop improvement approach aims to positively influence human health, as a complement to diet supplementation and food fortification. In recent years, CIP has initiated the development of Fe and Zn biofortified potatoes, under the umbrella of the HarvestPlus Program ( http://www.harvestplus.org/ ), a global interdisciplinary alliance for developing biofortified varieties of staple crops (Amoros et al 2020 ). Food security programs working to deploy biofortified crops will strongly benefit from nutritional education efforts and awareness programs considering gender roles in the beneficiary communities.…”