The AEGIS Competitive Grant project ‘Identification of old potato clones having unreliable variety names by means of fingerprinting using microsatellite (SSR) markers to assist in setting up the AEGIS collection for potato cultivars’ has been finalized and its report placed on the AEGIS Grant Scheme webpage.

The aim of the project was to use microsatellite genotyping to assist in setting up the AEGIS collection for potato cultivars by means of fingerprinting old potato clones with questionable identity, to confirm or correct their cultivar names.

Out of approximately 9,000 Solanum tuberosum accessions included in EURISCO a total of 379 accessions from eight countries were genotyped with 12 SSR markers. Three recommendations had been made, including the use 9 out of the 12 markers that had been used in the AEGIS study and thus to contribute to the establishment of a central SSR-fingerprint database.

Potato varieties (Photo: R. Vogel)