ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how potato germplasm is being used to create insect pest resistant potatoes, with emphasis on Myzus persicae, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, and Phthorimaea operculella. Potato, Solanum tuberosum ssp. tuberosum L., is the fourth most important food crop in terms of production and cash value. Potato germplasm, in the form of true potato seed, tubers, or in vitro plantlets, is held in genebanks throughout the world. Classical breeding strategies have been based on sexual crosses between and within closely related species. The cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum ssp. tuberosum, is a vegetatively propagated autotetraploid species with tetrasomic inheritance and high heterozygosity. This has allowed potato breeders to take advantage of both genetic and somaclonal variation, use precocious in vitro selection techniques, and overcome certain interspecific incompatibilities. Genes from at least 18 exotic potato species have been incorporated into North American and European potato cultivars primarily for stress tolerance or disease resistance.
