Publications by authors named "Asunta L Thompson"

Cold temperature storage (lower than 10 °C) has been used as a management strategy to extend marketability and reduce potato storage losses. However, cold temperatures may result in dark-colored chips through a process known as cold-induced sweetening (CIS). 'Dakota Crisp' and 'Dakota Diamond' are two North Dakota State University potato breeding program cultivar releases selected for cold-chipping ability with high tuber yield potential.

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Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the most widely grown vegetable in the world. Consumers and processors evaluate potatoes based on quality traits such as shape and skin color, making these traits important targets for breeders.

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We find evidence of selection for local adaptation and extensive genotype-by-environment interaction in the potato National Chip Processing Trial (NCPT). We present a novel method for dissecting the interplay between selection, local adaptation and environmental response in plant breeding schemes. Balancing local adaptation and the desire for widely adapted cultivars is challenging for plant breeders and makes genotype-by-environment interactions (GxE) an important target of selection.

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Knowledge regarding genetic diversity and population structure of breeding materials is essential for crop improvement. The Texas A&M University Potato Breeding Program has a collection of advanced clones selected and maintained in-vitro over a 40-year period. Little is known about its genetic makeup and usefulness for the current breeding program.

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As one of the world's most important food crops, the potato ( L.) has spurred innovation in autotetraploid genetics, including in the use of SNP arrays to determine allele dosage at thousands of markers. By combining genotype and pedigree information with phenotype data for economically important traits, the objectives of this study were to (1) partition the genetic variance into additive nonadditive components, and (2) determine the accuracy of genome-wide prediction.

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Mature native periderm that exhibits resistance to excoriation (RE) is the primary defense for potato tubers against abiotic and biotic challenges. However, little is known about the physiology of periderm maturation and associated gene expressions. In this study, periderm maturation events and associated gene expressions were determined in tubers of two diverse potato genotypes (NDTX4271-5R (ND) and Russet Burbank (RB); 2008 and 2009 crops) at four harvest maturities ranging from immature (non-senesced vines and low RE) to mature (senesced vines and high RE).

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Little is known about the coordinate induction of genes that may be involved in agriculturally important wound-healing events. In this study, wound-healing events were determined together with wound-induced expression profiles of selected cell cycle, cell wall protein, and pectin methyl esterase genes using two diverse potato genotypes and two harvests (NDTX4271-5R and Russet Burbank tubers; 2008 and 2009 harvests). By 5 d after wounding, the closing layer and a nascent phellogen had formed.

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