OVERVIEW OF in vitro PRESERVATION OF POTATO AND USE OF THE GENE BANK MATERIAL IN ESTONIA

At evika, we have been preserving potato varieties, breeding lines and land-races in vitro asmeristem plants for more than 30 years. various experiments have been conducted to determinethe effects of medium components, growth conditions and other factors on regeneration and thesub-culturing interval of in vitro plants. based on these experiments, the optimal preservationmedium and long-term preservation conditions in vitro for many varieties have been developed.every 3.0–3.5 months, the potato plants regenerated from meristems are transferred ontogrowth-regulator-free propagation medium. at present, there are 454 potato varieties, breedingmaterials, land-races and 1026 meristem clones in our gene bank. the interest in varieties as geneticresources and in those with coloured flesh tubers is increasing. in evika’s test field wehave been testing meristem clones of variety ‘blue congo’. we have demonstrated the use ofthat variety for making salads; baked, boiled, mashed potato and even for french fries. in addition,the use of the genetic resources was started in a farm, where. 2000 kg seed tubers wereproduced from 4580 meristem plants of variety ‘v?ike verev’ in 2012. the main interests are: darkyellow flesh, content of antioxidants and use as a source for functional diet.