STURGEON BAY, Wis. - Stored inside a nondescript building and greenhouse in Door County is the equivalent of much of the world's potato blueprints.

Wisconsin is home to many things, but it's safe to say that few people know the globe's largest collection of wild and cultivated potato species are here.

Most folks traveling past the Peninsular Agriculture Research Station just outside Sturgeon Bay have no idea the potato chips or French fries they gobbled at lunch were most likely developed through the efforts of the U.S. Potato Genebank. Potato germ plasm is sent from Sturgeon Bay to researchers throughout the world who are trying to figure out how to make potatoes more frost- and pest-resistant, easier to digest and even various colors.

"Part of our business is to find things, characterize them as unusual, determine if there's interest, publish and see if anyone wants to run with it," said John Bamberg, director of the gene bank.

The gene bank is a repository of thousands of seeds and cultivars collected throughout the U.S. and world over more than six decades. The oldest potato seeds at the facility, which was established by Wisconsin potato farmers in 1948, date to the early 1950s.

The Sturgeon Bay site, part of the National Plant Germplasm System preserving the genetic diversity of plants, is the only gene bank based in Wisconsin. Gene banks are scattered across the country, including facilities for rice in Arkansas, soybeans and maize in Illinois, wheat in Idaho and tomatoes in California.

The gene banks are used to acquire, preserve and evaluate plant varieties and then distribute them free to researchers. The potato facility houses about 5,000 seed populations and 1,000 clonal varieties. U.S. scientists and breeders outnumber international researchers seeking germ plasm 3 to 2. Plus horticulturists from companies such as Frito-Lay work with potato germ plasm from the gene bank.

Scientists like Shelley Jansky need access to genetic diversity to develop varieties that are resistant to pests and extreme weather. She's working on solving the problem of verticillium wilt, a common fungus in the soil. To solve the problem, potato farmers must inject chemicals in their fields before planting.

Through the potato gene bank, Jansky has found a wild species of potato from South America that's mostly immune to verticillium wilt.

"It's a tremendous resource that's right at my fingertips. I call them and say, 'Can you send me this, this and this?' and they send me seeds in the mail," said Jansky, a U.S. Department of Agriculture research scientist and associate professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

See more here:
Potato gene bank stores world's varieties

Comments are closed.