Shelley Jansky, crop breeder & research geneticist
Shelley Jansky, PhD, is a crop breeder working to develop new varieties of potatoes that store longer with better quality.
It’s frustrating to buy potatoes, store them, and then cut them open only to find that they have rotted inside. This contributes to the problem of food waste. Other researchers determined that potatoes that had more natural calcium in them are less prone to rot.
Building on this idea, Jansky’s research team focused on developing potato varieties with more calcium. This would make them less likely to rot. The crop breeders used wild potatoes from South America to help them. They did this through a process called cross pollination.
Colleagues at gene banks around the country keep seeds and germplasm from a wide array of crop plants. Working with the U.S. Potato Gene Bank in Wisconsin, Jansky placed an order for seeds from a number of wild potato relatives they were interested in testing. The seeds came in the mail—just like seeds you get from a seed catalog.
When the team got the seeds, they planted them in the greenhouse. They grew into plants that look quite different than normal potatoes: some have very broad leaves, some have much more narrow leaves. In fact, the one with the very broad leaves is the one they used as the source of high calcium. When the plants flower, researchers collect the pollen from the flowers by shaking them with a modified toothbrush. They collect the pollen in capsules and keep those capsules in the freezer until the researchers need them for pollinations.
When the scientists are ready to carry out the cross pollinations, they apply the pollen from the wild species to the female parts of the flowers of conventional potatoes. Then they wait for those flowers to develop into berries with seeds. Those seeds carry genes from both wild and conventional potatoes.
After they collect those seeds, it’s time to plant them and wait for the resulting potato tubers. In the breeding program, the researchers do several types of crosses to find the ones that will produce potatoes with the most calcium.
By looking back to the ancient relatives of potato, crop breeders can create new varieties that taste good and have a longer shelf life. The end result is that more people can enjoy this delicious, nutritious vegetable. In this way, crop breeders help feed the world and improve food sustainability.
Watch Jansky in action. Read more about her research with potatoes and calcium. Read Dr. Jansky's blog about using crop wild relatives of potato in her breeding program here.
Members with access to our Digital Library can read more about research here and here.
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