The Peruvian Potato Project, led by Héctor Cántaro Segura, an agricultural engineer at La Molina National Agrarian University has been announced as the 2024 recipient of the Illumina Agricultural Greater Good Initiative grant. The announcement was made at the Plant and Animal Genome conference in San Diego.
The grant, a part of Illumina’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, has been awarded annually since 2011 to projects that promote research into food security and sustainability. With this support, Cántaro’s team will conduct whole-genome sequencing on 1000 potato varieties indigenous to the region.
The project aims to involve the Indigenous Quechua people and will collaborate with Parque de la Papa, a collective of sustainable farms near Pisaq. The park, which grows 1300 types of potato, has previously partnered with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway to conserve this biodiversity.
Through Illumina technology, the Peruvian Potato Project will generate whole-genome sequences for all 1,000 varieties and analyze the data to identify the genes responsible for disease resistance and other beneficial traits. The project will then create a publicly accessible catalog to share their findings globally.
Cántaro believes that native Peruvian potatoes have the potential to enhance global food security, promote sustainable agriculture, and conserve biodiversity. The grant recognizes the project’s potential to inform breeding programs and advance scientific understanding of potato genetics.
Source: www.illumina.com