Cost analysis of the application of marker-assisted selection in potato breeding

The primary aim of plant breeders is to develop new cultivars in order to improve productivity and to combat threats from pests and diseases. Recent advances in genomics have been recognised as providing important tools for plant breeders in the form of molecular genetic markers that can be used to tag genes of interest. However, the cost-effective use of marker technology is dependent on the nature and timing of the use of such markers. A conventional potato breeding programme typically creates a large breeding population and then employs phenotypic recurrent selection over a number of generations to identify superior genotypes. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) provides the advantage of being applicable at the seedling or an early generation stage. We have analysed the cost of MAS and compared it to conventional screening, then modelled the respective costs against the breeding population size of the generation in which they would be applied to determine whether MAS in the early generations of a potato breeding programme would be cost-effective. As various potato breeding programmes employ different selection rates in early generations, these rates have also been modelled to determine the effect. Our results indicate that MAS could be applied cost-effectively in the second clonal generation for all models currently employed in potato breeding.