Potato Population Genomics

Potatoes are the third most widely grown food crop in the world. Due to their ability to grow on marginal land and produce large amounts of nutritious food with relatively few inputs, they have shaped human history. They are part of a wide range of international cuisines and growing in popularity. However, due to the complexity of autotetraploidy, clonal growth, and a wide range of wild relatives, we know less about potato genomics, diversity, and evolution than we do about comparable grain crops. Population genomics questions such as the relationship between potatoes and their numerous wild relatives, the timing and location of domestication and range expansion, and the patterns of selection and variation left in the potato genome by these histories remain open. Although there is a long history of potato genetics research, the current moment is particularly exciting. Potatoes are being reinvented as a diploid inbred-hybrid crop by scientists in the public and private sector around the world. New tools are under development for quantitative genetics and breeding in autopolyploid crops, for which potato serves as a model species. The availability of sequence data for potato and its relatives is growing rapidly. In this chapter, we review the currently available population genetics and genomics data in potato and the inferences that have been drawn from it as well as the questions it presents.