Chemical mutagen creates trackable DNA changes in potato plants
Crop Improvement
The potatoes in your garden bed could one day come from a variety bred faster this way, since chemical mutagenesis lets breeders skip years of cross-pollination while still working within the plant's own genome.
Researchers dosed potato shoots with a chemical called EMS, which nudges random small changes into a plant's DNA, similar to speeding up natural mutation. They then used a DNA fingerprinting technique called ISSR to check which plants actually picked up genetic changes versus which stayed the same. This kind of work helps breeders find potato plants with useful new traits, like disease resistance, without waiting generations for those changes to show up naturally.
Key Findings
EMS (ethyl methanesulfonate) treatment was applied to potato (Solanum tuberosum) shoots to induce random genetic mutations
ISSR (Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat) molecular markers were used to detect and confirm DNA-level variation between treated and untreated plants
The approach provides a method for screening mutagenized potato lines for genetic diversity useful in breeding programs
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists treated potato shoots with a chemical mutagen to induce random genetic changes, then used DNA fingerprinting to confirm the mutations actually took hold, a step toward breeding potato varieties with new traits.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Gene editing removes 97% of celiac-triggering proteins from bread wheat
It could mean that people with celiac disease — roughly 1 in 100 worldwide — may one day safely eat bread made from real wheat, without sacrificing the taste...
The potato is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant Solanum tuberosum, a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.