Project Oppotunity, a collaboration of 12 European organisations in the starch potato chain, has completed its first field trials with CRISPR-Cas-edited starch potatoes developed for late blight resistance. The 2025 trials took place in Sweden and Denmark and were accompanied by a seed multiplication program to supply material for larger trials in 2026.
According to the project, the gene-edited lines were created using CRISPR-Cas applied to Kuras, a widely used European starch variety provided by Agrico. Hans Berggren, secretary of Project Oppotunity, said, "Only last year we created the first seedlings and cultivated them in a greenhouse to produce seed-tubers, and have now grown these so-called mini-tubers in the field during the 2025 growing season." He added, "I'm very optimistic that by 2026 and onwards, we can show stakeholders the power of NGTs in the field via enhanced potato genotypes tolerant to a plant disease as severe as late blight. We have proven the speed this technology brings to adapt potatoes to urgent and changing environmental requirements."
Seed multiplication was carried out in parallel to generate larger volumes of seed potatoes for multi-location trials in 2026. These will measure resistance levels and agronomic performance under commercial-style management.
Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans remains a key constraint for potato growers, who often apply multiple fungicide sprays each season. New pathogen strains continue to emerge, creating pressure on existing chemistry and resistance sources. Oppotunity position gene-edited resistance as a tool to reduce fungicide reliance if EU rules for new breeding methods allow the use of NGTs in commercial production.
Sjefke Allefs, potato breeder at Agrico and project partner, said, "It will still take some years to verify the effects and select the single event that will deliver an appropriate increased late blight tolerance so that it contributes to a more sustainable starch potato cultivation." He added that the overall process is "8–10 years faster than what can be achieved with traditional breeding." By directly editing a resistance trait into Kuras rather than relying on repeated crossing, the partners aim to preserve existing agronomic and processing characteristics while adding targeted disease tolerance.
Project Oppotunity includes Aardevo, Agrana, Agrico, Emsland Stärke, Finnamyl (Chemigate), KMC, Lyckeby, Niehoff, Norika, SolEdits, Südstärke and AKV. The group aims to maintain the competitiveness of the European starch potato sector and supports a regulatory framework in which certain gene-edited plants are treated the same as conventionally bred varieties.
With seed stocks now increased, the consortium will move to broader 2026 trials to assess late blight pressure, resistance levels, yield, starch characteristics, and fungicide requirements compared with standard Kuras and other commercial checks. Performance data and the evolving EU regulatory framework will determine whether an edited line progresses toward commercialisation and whether the approach could be applied to other starch varieties.
Source: Potato News Today
