10074431TUBERGENE: A pipeline to produce gene edited potatoes to enhance consumer satisfactionClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKPotato farmers face many technical and commercial challenges, whilst operating within extremely tight financial margins. Pests and diseases can compromise the quality of whole crops - gradual phasing out of many chemical controls leaves few options for intervention. At the same time there is a shortage of skilled labour, progressive climate change is leading to less than ideal growing conditions and time-pressed consumers are moving towards other foodstuffs that can cook in shorter times than potatoes. It is not hyperbole to suggest that the UK industry is likely to be in existential crisis unless solutions to some of these problems can be found. Legal changes to allow gene-editing (GE) in crops in England are currently going through the legislative process and GE is likely to be transformative for the potato industry, since it allows us to make specific, targeted changes to the potato genome that will address some of the problems face by the sector. In this project we will address two problem areas for which solutions are instantly achievable given currently knowledge and technology: we will make a gene edit that will prevent the discoloration that happens when potatoes bruise or when they suffer from a range of other cultural problems; we will also make an edit that will reduce the cooking times of potatoes by half. During the project period, we will also dramatically improve our understanding of one of the UK's most loved potatoes, Maris Piper, by undertaking genome sequencing and assembly, and we will also study the natural variability associated with genes controlling other traits. Combined, these pieces of work will allow us to create a knowledge-based pipeline so we can combine gene edits to iterate towards a "super potato".