The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium (PGSC) aims to elucidate the complete DNA sequence of the potato genome by the end of 2010. The availability of the complete sequence of the 840 MB of potato DNA will enable potato breeders and related industries to fully exploit the genetic potential of the fourth most important field crop in the world.
The elucidation of the complete DNA sequence of the potato genome will pave the way for the development of novel potato cultivars comprising a large variety of high performance characteristics, such as disease resistance and processing quality. This will boost widespread use of potato cultivars, ensuring that by the year 2020 more than two billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America can rely on root and tuber crops for feed and food purposes. For the western world, the demands of the increasing market diversification can then be met appropriately.
PGSC is an initiative of the Netherlands Genomics Initiative and Wageningen University and Research Centre. Next to the Netherlands, 14 leading players in the potato research and production field have joined the consortium: Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, New-Zealand, Poland, Russian Federation, UK (Scotland) and USA. In addition, Japan and Turkey have expressed their interest in joining PGSC.
All activities will be managed from Wageningen University and Research Centre, which will also maintain the potato sequence database.