Potato Gene Bank holds the past and the future

Farm and Ranch September 4, 2009 It is not a financial bank, but this bank is a repository of perhaps incalculable wealth for the potato industry. It is the United States Potato Gene Bank, which sits on a Wisconsin peninsula in Lake Michigan.

Washington State Potato Commission Director of Research Andy Jensen and two commissioners recently visited the USDA Agricultural Research Service facility. Jensen says the bank maintains and keeps track of basically all the different potatoes in the world.

Jensen: “Keeping track of mostly wild species and have an extensive collection of seeds and tubers and quite a facility to maintain all that. And the main purpose for that is so that if a potato breeder wants to access some kind of interesting trait in a new potato, whether it‘s nutrition, pest resistance, they‘ve got it there at the Potato Gene Bank. It is the central piece of all potato breeding in the country. So we wanted to go visit and see how it works and make sure they know we are interested.”

Jensen says some of the gene bank’s germplasm is currently being used in Washington.

Jensen: “For phyto-nutrient research. For interesting pigments. For disease resistance, pest resistance. The were able to walk us through a greenhouse and show us some the wild species currently being used by our scientists here in Washington for that kind of breeding work.”

Potato Gene Bank scientists helped the Washington researchers locate that germplasm.

That’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow! I’m Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.