Inheritance of the response of fry color to low temperature storage

Most commercial potato processing cultivars rapidly accumulate reducing sugars at storage temperatures below 10 C, producing an unacceptably dark fried product. Development of cultivars with the ability to process with a light color out of 4 to 6 C storage is a major breeding objective worldwide. Low temperature storage reduces the need for chemical sprout inhibitors and pesticides used to control storage pathogens. The genetic control of the ability to fry out of cold storage temperature was studied in a diploid population and in tetraploid breeding populations of the Western Canadian Potato Breeding Program. Based on the segregation ratios observed in the study, a two-independent-loci genetic model is proposed with either homozygous recessive alleles or at least one dominant allele at both loci required to ensure acceptable fry color out of low temperature storage.