The Tissue Culture Lab is housed in the UW Biotron, a facility designed for biological isolation. The generation of Elite Foundation Seed involves the maintenance of pathogen tested tissue culture stock potato cultivars in our clonal bank in Madison. Sprouts are surface-sterilized and placed on a semi-solid nutrient medium. The resulting plantlets are then pathogen tested. We screen for pathogens which affect potato cultivars grown by North American growers, namely potato viruses S, X, Y, Leaf Roll, A, and M; Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, Potato Latent Virus, Tobacco Ratttle Virus, Alfalfa Mosaic Virus; bacteria, which cause ring rot (Clavibacter michiganense pv. sepedonicus) and soft rot (Erwinia carotovora pvs. carotovora and atroseptica); fungi, and spindle tuber viroid (PSTV). Sprouts from each individual tuber receive a numeric "clonal" designation, so that clones in the field can be traced back to one mother plant. Once pathogen-negative plantlets are obtained (several clones for each variety) they are maintained on long-term storage medium and in the form of microtubers in preparation for increase. Each year, these "clones" are subcultured into thousands of plants, which are taken to the State Farm during April and May.

Objectives

Provide high quality plantlets to the Lelah Starks Elite Foundation Seed Potato Farm.

Maintain, pathogen test, and propagate over 125 varieties and clonal selections in the Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification Program pre-nuclear clonal bank.

Introduce and clean up new selections for elite foundation seed potato production at the State Farm.

Provide tissue culture services to UW and outside researchers for a fee.