Disease Resistance and Nutritional Properties of Tuber-Bearing Native Potato Species and Old Spanish Cultivars

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Certain potato cultivars such as native potato species (NPS) from the Andes are known to have resistances to different pests and diseases. Some accessions are also interesting from a nutritional and culinary perspective. A collection of 35 NPS and 11 old Spanish accessions were analysed for Streptomyces scabies, Rhizoctonia solani and Globodera rostochiensis, as well as dry matter, reducing sugars, minerals, glycoalkaloid concentrations, and total antioxidant capacity. A wide variability was found between and also within the species. Most accessions showed favourable characteristics, while high concentrations values of glycoalkaloids were observed in certain accessions. The results suggest that some NPS and old Spanish accessions have a great potential for exploitation in potato breeding programmes as a source of resistances and nutritional variability.