VOICE ONE:
This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today, we will tell about a genetic map of one of the world's major food crops. We will tell about a car made mostly from renewable materials, like plants. And, we will tell about an experimental vehicle designed for blind drivers.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Scientists have released a genetic map of the potato. The map is the work of scientists from fourteen countries. The project is called the Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium.
Potatoes are one of the world's leading food crops. Breeders currently spend ten to twelve years developing new kinds of potatoes. Now they will be able to identify genes for any desired trait, improving quality, nutritional value and disease resistance.
A genome contains information about every position along chromosomes, the structures that hold genes. Genes direct the making of proteins which do much of the work in building an organism, whether a person or a potato.
A potato has twelve chromosomes and about eight hundred forty million base pairs. This is about one-fourth the size of the human genome.
VOICE TWO:
The potato genome shows the order of ninety-five percent of the genetic material. Most potato varieties carry four separate copies of their genes. But the researchers did much of their work with a phureja -- a kind of a potato that has only one copy. Richard Veilleux provided that variety of potato. He is a professor with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Plant biologist Robin Buell of Michigan State University also worked on the genome. She says it will improve understanding of other crops because potatoes have been linked to tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.
VOICE ONE:
Separately, another team reported completing a genome of the organism responsible for late blight. That disease can infect potatoes, tomatoes and other plants. It causes several billion dollars a year in agricultural losses.
Late blight was also the cause of the potato famine in Ireland in the middle of the eighteen hundreds. Potato shortages were blamed for at least one million deaths. The food shortages were responsible for many Irish immigrants moving to the United States.
VOICE TWO:
The scientists say that studies based on the new genome may help explain, in the short-term, why the organism has been so aggressive. And, in the long term, they say, knowing where different genetic traits may be found on the map could lead to better plants. It could also reduce the need for chemicals.
Completion of the project was reported in the journal Nature. Researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led the work.