Get Potatoes United – Collaboration Action for Updating the Virtual European Potato Collection (EURO-POTATOES)
Activity coordinator: Veli-Matti Rokka
The EURO-POTATOES, submitted by the Potato Working Group for funding under the Sixth Call of the Phase X ECPGR Activity Grant Scheme, was selected by the Executive Committee and approved in February 2023.
- Activity proposal (523,2 KB)
Implementation
March 2024
The kick-off meeting of the EURO-POTATOES Activity took place on 19-20 March 2024 in Młochów and Radzikow, Poland, hosted by the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute - National Research Institute (IHAR-PIB). Partners from 17 countries and the ECPGR Secretariat attended. This was the occasion to re-start the activities of the Potato Working Group (WG), under the guidance of Veli-Matti Rokka, Finland and Pawel Chrominski, Sweden, respectively Chair and Vice-Chair of the group. The discussion was inspired by a summary of the history of the WG, offered by former Chair Roel Hoekstra, The Netherlands. After presentations on national activities and management of potato collections of the project partners, the group focused its discussion on the various methodologies to genotype the collections. The main genotyping objective of this project is dedicated to the need to distinguish unique from duplicate genotypes and thus identify suitable accessions to be prioritized for conservation and possible inclusion in the AEGIS European Collection. Each partner was recommended to provide a list of the genetic material that could benefit from a genotyping effort. Out of this list, a group of 100-200 accessions, depending on estimated costs, will be sent for genotyping to a selected provider. Different opinions were expressed regarding the convenience of using SSR markers versus SNPs. Apparently, the cost would be similar. Adoption of SSR markers would enable comparison with a larger number of already referenced genotypes, while SNP technologies would offer more information for each individual genotype and the adoption of a more advanced and forward-looking methodology. The group gave itself more time to explore the pros and cons, aiming to reach a final decision through an online meeting soon to be scheduled.
The ECPGR Secretary informed the group about the principles behind the AEGIS initiative and the continuing priority for ECPGR to support countries to identify and include material into AEGIS, as well as about the need to further develop the AEGIS Quality System. In this regard, the WG took up the commitment to develop potato-specific genebank quality standards for final agreement.
Meeting agenda (597,2 KB) | List of participants (666,8 KB)
Presentations are available below.
Presentations
Presentations given at the kick-off meeting of the ECPGR Activity EURO-POTATOES, held in Poland from 19-20 March 2024
Presentations given during the meeting are listed in the table below. Click on the title of the presentation to display the relevant presentation.
Disclaimer: these texts and presentations have not been edited and are being published as originally received from the authors.