Responsible: Roel Hoekstra

The Dutch - German Potato Collection

The collection is being maintained at the Centre for Genetic Resources, The Netherlands (CGN). It consists of wild and Andean cultivated potato species. Background and availability of the collection are described. Passport and evaluation data are downloadable. Passport data of those accessions that received a CGN accession number can be searched on-line. Furtheron addresses and web sites of major potato genebanks, inventories, literature references as well as links to some other potato sites are presented. Several European potato variety collections are listed in the document on the EU project on potato genetic resources.


History

In 1974 an agreement was signed between the Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Forestry (now: Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection) of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands concerning cooperative activities in the field of potato genetic resources. As a consequence the "German-Netherlands Potato Department" was established in the "Institut für Pflanzenbau und Pflanzenzüchtung der Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landwirtschaft Braunschweig-Völkenrode" (FAL), with the objective to maintain plant genetic resources of the potato. The existing collections from both countries the Erwin Bauer Sortiment (EBS), maintained at the Max-Planck Institute in Köln, and the Wageningse Aardappel Collectie (WAC), maintained at the Department of Plant Breeding of the Agricultural University of Wageningen, were merged at the FAL in Braunschweig. In 1984 it became a project of the German-Netherlands Board for Plant Genetic Resources. January 1995 the Dutch-German Potato Collection was transferred to Wageningen, to the Centre for Genetic Resources The Netherlands (CGN) of Wageningen University and Research Centre. That part of the collection that can be freely distributed (screened for quarantine diseases; enough seeds available; good germinability) is included in the 'regular' CGN collections.


Collection

The collection contains about 1950 accessions of 117 wild species and 750 accessions of 5 primitive (or traditional Andean cultivated) species originating from 12 countries in South and North America. Peru has the highest diversity for potato genetic resources, but it is still under represented in our collection. Peru has been too dangerous for intensive collecting for a period of about 15 years, due to terrorist activities.

For a list of available species per taxonomic series including general info on Endosperm Balance Number, chromosome number, region of origin, altitude range and  go here.


Donors

The former Dutch (WAC) and German (EBS) collections comprise 40% of the current accessions. They include 94 accessions of cultivated potato species collected 1955 by Toxopeus during the Dutch Expedition to Peru, as well as 77 accessions of 28 wild species collected 1959 by Ross and Rimpau during the German Andes Expedition to Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Data cards from WAC 1-953 are available as PDF (see Potato links).  The collection was substantially expanded with material from the Argentine genebank INTA-Balcarce. The INTA material accounts for 24% of the collection. Including the expeditions from Ross & Rimpau and Toxopeus, 26% of the collection originates directly from collecting expeditions with Dutch or German participation. Seed exchange with other genebanks has taken place too. Furthermore material was received from universities active in the field of potato taxonomy.
Some seed samples from the expeditions may not be viable. Therefore it will be attempted to regenerate them, before these accessions are included in the overview.

The material collected in Peru 1999 was transformed into true seed at CIP-Huancayo. Next to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, Peru is member of the Andean Pact. The Andean Pact adopted Decision 391 on a "Common Regime on Access to Genetic Resources", a procedurally complex law, which entered into force mid-1996. An export permission for this material will probably not be given until a new law on genetic resources has passed the Peruvian parliament, implementing the CBD and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.


Safety duplication

A safety duplicate, containing a multiplication sample (à 200 seeds) and at least 250 seeds from the bulk, is being kept in a storage facility of IPK-Gatersleben, on the peninsula Poel, Germany. Earlier (1981), potato samples were exchanged with the Commonwealth Potato Collection (CPC). 770 samples have been received and about 570 samples were sent to Scotland then.


International treaties

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was signed by over 150 governments at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The CBD became effective as international law on 29 December 1993. More information on the CBD and its international implementation is available at the secretariat www.biodiv.org. The current Dutch policy concerning access and benefit sharing related to genetic resources can be viewed at the web-site CBD Focal Point, under the button 'policies'. Furthermore, several of your questions may have been answered under the button 'Frequently asked questions'.
The EU established an Access and Benefits Sharing Portal supporting the CBD.

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was approved 3 November 2001 by the Conference of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which entered into force on 29 June 2004 (see www.fao.org/ag/cgrfa/). It revises the International Undertaking (1983) to promote international harmony for access to PGR for food and agriculture. It provides a framework to ensure access to PGR and to related knowledge, technologies, and internationally agreed funding. It recognizes Farmers' Rights as being complementary to plant Breeders' Rights.


Implementation of the IT-PGRFA for potato

Annex 1 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (see page 20 of ITPGRe.pdf) lists the crops covered by the multilateral system. It includes Solanum section tuberosa and excludes S. phureja. Using the system of Hawkes (1990), CGN considers Solanum section tuberosa to be the species in the family Solanaceae, genus Solanum, subgenus Potatoe, section Petota, which includes the subsections Estolonifera and Potatoe. According to Hawkes, section Petota is maybe better known as Tuberarium, a name taken from Dunal (1852) by the German taxonomist George Bitter (1912). Subsection Estolonifera consists of the series: Etuberosa and Juglandifolia. The latter contains the species S. juglandifolium, sitiens and ochranthum. Based on molecular data, the species from this series are now considered to be much more related to tomato then to potato (Contreras-M. & Spooner, 1999). Therefore CGN has put the accessions from these species under the tomato crop (following USDA genebanks). Also species from section Basarthrum, like S. canense and fraxinifolium, as well as the S. nigrum like species S. chaparense are considered to be non-section tuberosum species. These species (incl. S. phureja) are submitted to CBD regulations when gathered after 1993.