Potato cultivar genome analysis.

Due to the yearly increase in the numbers of new potato varieties obtaining Plant Breeders' Rights the reliable maintenance of large culture collections of reference varieties for DUS testing is becoming more and more difficult, as accidental mix ups might occur. Efficient identification methods and databases can act as an aid to overcome this problem. Identification of cultivars by morphological characteristics is a highly skilled and time-consuming task, and for these reasons a rapid and robust method for variety differentiation has become extremely desirable. By use of a set of nine microsatellite (SSR) markers we can differentiate over 1,000 cultivars, including the majority of varieties on the European Union Common Catalogue, but excluding somaclonal variants (e.g. Red King Edward and King Edward) and mutants. The whole identification process from DNA extraction to accurate identification can be carried out in a single day.