Page 65 - Plant Canada 2024 Proceeding

PLANT CANADA 2024

Wednesday, July 10

Dr. Martina Strömvik
McGill University

“The Petota super-pangenome and potato
wild relatives”

Abstract: Potato wild relatives are a source
of genetic diversity for improving traits in
modern cultivars to meet climate challenges.
There are over 100 species the Solanum
section Petota, with ploidy ranging from diploid
to hexaploid. A Petota super pan-genome was
constructed using 296 accessions including
both diploid and polyploid cultivars, clones, landraces and wild relatives representing a
total of 60 species. The phylogeny based on presence/absence variation within the
super pan-genome shows clade-specific core genes, and the impact of transposable
element in potato evolution. As a tool to help understand cold adapted potato species,
an allotetraploid wild potato species was sequenced and compared with a common
autotetraploid cultivar that is not cold climate adapted. The allotetraploid Solanum
acaule Bitter has long been used to introgress cold tolerance into potato breeding
germplasm. The present study includes the sequenced and phased subgenomes of
Solanum acaule placed in a phylogenetic context with other potato wild relatives.

Bio: Dr. Strömvik leads a bioinformatics research program focusing on complex polyploid
genomes of plants (e.g. arctic and temperate Oxytropis sp., and potato wild relatives). She
completed a Ph.D. in Crop Sciences (plant molecular genetics of soybean) at University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), and a B.A. in Theoretical Philosophy as well as a M.Sc. in
Biology (tissue culture and transformation in Picea abies) at Stockholm University (Sweden).
She carried out postdoctoral studies in Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics at
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (USA) working on genomics projects in
soybean, Medicago truncatula and loblolly pine. In 2003 she joined McGill’s Department of Plant
Science where she pioneered the development of university-wide graduate bioinformatics
programs and courses. She serves on national and international grant panels, as Associate
Editor for several journals, and as Chair of the Department of Plant Science since 2015.

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