Inheritance of tuber greening under light exposure in diploid potatoes

Low tendency to tuber greening under light exposure is a desirable trait for marketing and processing potatoes. Knowledge of the genetic basis of this trait is limited. During two consecutive years tuber greening after 2-week light exposure was evaluated on 17 unselected diploid potato families obtained between parents with varying tuber-greening tendencies. Parents of these families and standard cultivars were evaluated at the same time. External and depth of tuber greening were examined after tubers were exposed to 2 weeks of light in the greenhouse followed by storage at 10 C, 4 C, and after reconditioning at 18 C. Families, storage conditions, and years significantly influenced tuber greening. Distribution of greening indicated it would be possible to select individuals with very low tuber-greening tendency. Generally, external tuber greening was more intense than depth of greening. External tuber greening increased during storage while depth of tuber greening decreased. A significant maternal effect on external tuber greening was found in one of the three sets of reciprocal crosses after storage at 4 C. Both general and specific combining abilities were important in the inheritance of tuber greening. The correlations between external and depth of tuber greening in most families were significant and relatively high. The results indicated that genotypes with low tendency to tuber greening can be selected in diploid families.