The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a globally important staple crop, but its cultivation is heavily dependent on the use of pesticides to manage pests and diseases. Wild Solanum species, however, exhibit strong resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses and hold potential for improving potato resilience. Traditional breeding efforts have had limited success in transferring resistance from wild relatives to cultivated potatoes. As an alternative, we propose utilizing de novo domestication, a process in which wild species are modified using modern breeding techniques to produce crops better suited for current agricultural needs. We focused on Solanum bulbocastanum, a wild, diploid tuber-bearing species known for its resistance to pests and diseases. This species was selected based on several criteria, including its tuberization under varying light conditions, glycoalkaloid content, starch digestibility, and performance in tissue culture. Our findings show that S. bulbocastanum produces large tubers even under long-day conditions and performs exceptionally well in tissue culture, positioning it as a promising candidate for domestication.
In addition, we demonstrate the successful application of gene-editing techniques to S. bulbocastanum using ribonucleoproteins (Cas9 and sgRNA)to target genes involved in nitrate and peptide transport. The efficiency of gene editing ranged from 8.5% to 12.4%, and we successfully regenerated gene-edited plants, some with targeted mutations. This work demonstrates that genome editing, optimized for Solanum tuberosum, can also be applied to wild Solanum species, advancing our ability to domesticate them.
The broader potential of de novo domestication is significant in increasing crop species diversity. While only a few species have been fully domesticated in prehistory, modern precision breeding techniques now allow us to re-evaluate neglected wild species' potential for domestication. This approach could diversify the crops available to modern agriculture, contributing to more resilient and sustainable food systems.