Potato research

The Max Planck Institute anounced that they've sequenced the potato genome. This was tricker than usual, because the potato is tetraploid, with two pairs of genes coming from each parent. "efforts to breed new varieties with higher yields have remained largely unsuccessful to the current day. ... four copies of each chromosome also mean four copies of each gene, and this makes it highly challenging and time-consuming to generate new varieties that harbour a desired combination of individual properties"

Some unknown breeders managed long ago. "Today you can find over 4,000 varieties of native potatoes grown in the Andean highlands of Peru." I don't know how many of these are bred varieties, but it suggests that a little field work might help introduce some of the genetic variety the MPI is worried about.