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The potato, Solanum tuberosum L., is one of the world’s staple food crops. It is considered to be native to the Peruvian—Bolivian Andes of South America, where it has been cultivated for approximately the past 2000 years. The Spanish introduced potatoes to Europe during the second half of the sixteenth century. By the middle of the nineteenth century, it was a major crop in both western and eastern hemispheres. Potatoes, which are nutritious, supplying some vitamins and amino acids, are used either raw or cooked. They are ground into flour which is used in baking and as a sauce thickener, or they are cooked and served whole or mashed as an easily digestible, starchy food. Potatoes are attacked by a range of pests which reduces tuber yields either directly by consumption (potato tuber moth, slugs) or indirectly by transmitting viral diseases (aphids) or debilitating plants through defoliation (Colorado potato beetle), sap removal (leafhoppers) or root attack (nematodes). Being a vegetatively propagated crop, infection of parent potato plants with systemic virus diseases will reduce the yields of progeny plants grown from parent plant tubers. |
