Advancing Molecular Tools for the Accelerated Release of Root Knot Nematode Resistant Sweetpotato Varieties
Simon Fraher, MS Seminar
Under the direction of Dr. Craig Yencho, Dr. Adrienne Gorny, Dr. Gina Brown-Guedira
Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 10:00am

121 Kilgore Hall / Hybrid
Join Zoom Meeting: https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/98581973430?pwd=ZjY2R1lzbkNyMGFKNlgrKzVDMlRwUT09
Passcode: 021746

 Fraher.Abstr.pdf

Summary:
Root knot nematodes, Meloidogyne spp., are significant economic pests of sweetpotato in North Carolina and globally. We identified two major QTL for M. enterolobii (the guava root-knot nematode) and M. incognita (the southern root-knot nematode) in the biparental sweetpotato mapping population ‘Tanzania’ x ‘Beauregard’ (TB). M. enterolobii is a newly introduced pest in the Southeast, and it is currently subject to strict plant quarantine regulations in North Carolina – a state which produces ~65% of the US sweetpotato crop. New genomic tools and resources for hexaploid sweetpotato have enabled us to identify SNP markers within the highly significant QTL identified for M. enterolobii and M. incognita. We designed four SNP-based KASP markers, two each for M. enterolobii and M. incognita, that correctly predict resistance with over 80% accuracy in the TB population and a diverse germplasm panel. These markers may represent the first tool for marker-assisted selection in sweetpotato, and will accelerate the release of M. enterolobii and M. incognita resistant sweetpotato varieties for North Carolina and the southeastern US, where root-knot nematodes continue to be a major problem.