https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8943-6238
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Scott Hayes, Improving on the Humble Spud, Plant Physiology, Volume 177, Issue 1, May 2018, Pages 5–6, https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.18.00350
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The humble spud. Simple, unassuming, yet vital in supporting a large proportion of the world’s population. Historically speaking, much of the research performed on potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) has gone into enhancing their disease resistance, justifiably so given the severe famines brought about through potato blight in the mid-1800s and early 1900s. More recently, however, researchers have turned to studying other aspects of potato development in hopes of enhancing crop yields.
The Green Revolution of the 1960s dramatically enhanced global production of wheat (Triticum aestivum), rice (Oryza sativa), and maize (Zea mays). This increase was brought about (in part) through the development of semidwarf varieties of these crops. The compact structure of these semidwarf varieties made them more resistant to mechanical damage and enabled their planting at much higher densities. Despite the huge gains achieved in these cereal crops, there have been relatively few attempts to apply the concepts of the Green Revolution to potatoes (and tubers in general; Villordon et al., 2014).
