Plant & Animal Genomes XIII Conference

January 15-19, 2005
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

A Study Of The Origin Of The Ozette Potato From The Makah Nation In The Pacific Northwest Using SSR Markers

Zhang Linhai¹ , Ching-Pa Yang² , Daniel Andrade³ , Cassandra Smith⁴ , Hazel Denney⁴ , Neuee Ward⁴ , David Culley¹ , Charles R. Brown²

¹  IAREC, Washington State University, 24106 N. Bunn Rd., Prosser, WA 99350

²  USDA-ARS, 24106 N. Bunn Rd., Prosser, WA 99350

³  International Potato Center, Lima, Peru

⁴  Makah Nation, Neah Bay, WA 98357

Native Americans of the Makah Nation on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State have grown “Ozette” potatoes in their gardens for many generations. This “Ozette” potato has very different characteristics compared with modern potato varieties. In this study, the origin of the “Ozette” potatoes was investigated by using 14 SSR markers covering 12 potato chromosomes. A total 199 alleles were amplified and scored in Solanum tuberosum subsp. andigena (52 accessions), S. tuberosum subsp. tuberosum (38 accessions) and wild species (6 accessions). Within the subsp. tuberosum group, nineteenth century varieties, modern varieties, and Chilean cultivated potatoes were included. The phylogenetic analysis showed that subsp. andigena was separated from subsp. tuberosum group, with some exceptions. The wild species formed well-defined outgroups. “Ozette” was closely related to “Maria’s” potato collected from a Native Alaskan garden. The “Ozette” and “Maria’s” potatoes were more closely related to either some Mexican accessions or some Chilean accessions, versus the old European or modern varieties. They appear to be less related to most of the accessions from the Andes (i.e. subsp. andigena).