现代栽培马铃薯(Solanum tuberosum)是同源四倍体, 基因组高度杂合, 遗传组成复杂, 存在严重的自交衰退, 优异性状难以聚合, 使得育种周期漫长, 造成基于种子传代的马铃薯杂交育种难以突破。与此同时, 块茎无性繁殖导致马铃薯繁殖系数低、储运成本高和易携带病虫害等痼疾, 且种薯脱毒成本高, 限制其产业化发展。近期, 中国农业科学院深圳农业基因组研究所黄三文团队运用基因组设计理论和方法体系培育杂交马铃薯, 用二倍体育种替代四倍体育种, 实现了用杂交种子繁殖替代薯块繁殖, 创制了第1代高纯度的二倍体自交系和杂种优势明显的杂交马铃薯品系。该研究是马铃薯育种领域里程碑式的重大成果, 开启了基于基因组设计和种子迭代的马铃薯生物育种新纪元。

Modern cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a clonally propagated autotetraploid, with highly heterozygous genome, complex genetic background, and severe inbreeding depression, making it difficult to combine eminent traits and resulting in a long breeding cycle and the dilemma of ‘genetic stagnation’ of potato hybrid breeding. Moreover, clonal propagation leads to low reproduction coefficient, high cost of storage and transportation, whereas tubers are easy to carry viruses and pests, which have hindered the development of potato industry for a long time. Recently a team led by Sanwen Huang in Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, successfully use genome design to develop the pure and fertile potato lines and thereby the hybrid F₁, reinvent potato from a clonally propagated tetraploid into a seed-propagated diploid. This work is a milestone in potato breeding, that starts a new era of genome design and rapid potato breeding.