Theses and Dissertations Collection

Wild species of potato (Solanum tuberosum sp.) can provide a rich source of disease resistance for the modern day breeder. A unique breeding population designated A05379 segregates for potato leafroll virus resistance derived from S. etuberosum; resistance being conferred by gene Rlretb. RNA was extracted from Solanum etuberosum and two backcross 4 (BC4) subsets of the A05379 population. These two BC4 subsets represented a pool of plants immune and susceptible to potato leafroll virus (PLRV). The RNA of Solanum etuberosum and the BC4 pools were sequenced using Pacific Biosciences and Illumina methodologies, respectively. The two BC4 pools allowed the comparison of transcripts from immune and susceptible plants to determine variations in gene expression that might be associated with resistance to PLRV. The Pacific Biosciences sequences from Solanum etuberosum served as a reference sequence for the Illumina reads, since the whole genome sequence to S. etuberosum has not been reported. Comparison of susceptible and immune sequence data identified transcripts unique to one pool or the other, and identified putative candidate genes candidates for Rlretb.