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January 29, 2016 CapitalPress.com 3 Researcher bridges U.S., Mexico potato industries Arturo Quintero Ferrer works on the battle against PVY in potatoes Arturo Quintero Ferrer Age: 29 Home town: Originally from Jalisco, Mexico, but now residing in Moscow, Idaho Occupation: Ph.D. student under UI virologist Alex Karasev studying potato virus Y Family: Mother, Claudia; father, Arturo; sister, Monica By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press MOSCOW, Idaho — Uni- versity of Idaho potato virol- ogist Alexander Karasev has high hopes for Ph.D. student Arturo Quintero Ferrer, both as a scientist and a potential potato industry diplomat. Ferrer, a 29-year-old re- searcher from Jalisco, Mex- ico, has been helping Kara- sev to better understand the complex interaction between rapidly evolving potato virus Y strains and specific potato varieties. Ferrer’s ties have also opened doors in Karasev’s ef- forts to access PVY-positive plant samples from Mexican fields for comparison with U.S. strains. Karasev hopes Ferrer will continue researching potatoes when he returns home and helps to build a better rela- tionship between the U.S. and Mexican potato industries. U.S. growers have long been restricted to selling their fresh potatoes within 16 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border but were briefly granted ac- John O’Connell/Capital Press Arturo Quintero Ferrer, a Ph.D. student at University of Idaho in Moscow studying potato virus Y, tours R & G Potato Co. in American Falls, Idaho. cess to the entire country last summer, until the Mexican potato growers association blocked the expanded access in court. Those cases are still pending in the Mexican legal system. “I realized there’s a great divide between Mexico and the U.S.,” Karasev said. “That’s my expectation, that perhaps he may be the per- son who may help bridge this gap between the Mexican and U.S. potato industry.” Ferrer explained Idaho and Jalisco are considered sister states and have an agreement to share technology. While attending the University of Guadalajara, he agreed to participate in a new exchange program with UI. Though he was initially interested in studying human genetics, a course Ferrer took at UI made him aware of opportunities in plant genetics. He joined Karasev and began working in PVY in 2008, and was scheduled to graduate with his Ph.D. in December. Ferrer, who has a full scholarship from the Mex- ican government, has been working to map the genes of nine newly discovered PVY strains. “It’s very important to know your enemy,” Ferrer said. “We need to understand how PVY evolves and where it is going.” PVY, spread by aphids, reduces potato yields, and there’s been a shift toward strains that also cause tuber necrosis. For research purposes, UI maintains a collection of more than 30 PVY isolates, sup- ported in tobacco seedlings that must be replaced with freshly inoculated plants ev- ery few months. Since he first set to work in PVY, Ferrer said several new strains of the disease have surfaced — including four genetically unique strains he personally cataloged from Jalisco field samples. One of his discoveries from Mexico, PVY M3, is similar to a common U.S. strain, PVY NTN, but displays a disturb- ing characteristic. In tobacco plants, PVY M3 shows no visual symptoms. Ferrer be- lieves the trait shows how easily new PVY strains could evolve that are undetectable in potatoes, making it difficult for growers to remove infect- ed plants from fields and po- tentially resulting in broader infections. Certain potato varieties, such as Russet Norkotah, are already known to show little to no symptoms of some PVY strains. Karasev said potato breed- ers have targeted PVY O, responsible for 26 percent of infections in 2010, and reduced its prevalence to 6 percent of infections in 2014. Strains that cause tuber necro- sis now represent a quarter of infections. Karsev said PVY N Wilga, which doesn’t cause tuber rot but is tough to detect in many varieties, now causes 70 percent of infections and should be a priority for potato breeders. This story first appeared June 26, 2015. Researcher studies potato storage Yi Wang goes from trials to studying physiological mechanisms Yi Wang Age: 29 Job: Incoming potato storage physiologist with the University of Idaho’s Kimberly Research & Extension Center Education: Bacheler’s degree in biology from Nanjing Agricultural Univer- sity in China; Ph.D. in potato physiology from University of Wisconsin-Madison, in potato physiology; post-doctoral researcher with UW By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press John O’Connell/Capital Press Yi Wang, who started in March as the University of Idaho’s potato storage physiologist in Kimberly, holds a Payette Russet. She has overseen the agronomic trials that evaluated the new line, developed through a multi-state breeding effort to find potatoes low in acrylamide, which may be linked to cancer. Finally, she intends to eval- uate lines from the Aberdeen UI and USDA potato breed- ing programs for tuber-end defects, with the goal of pin- pointing the mechanisms that cause them. Wang’s arrival will free UI Extension potato spe- cialist Nora Olsen to spend more time in the field and to focus greater attention on variety-specific storage man- agement techniques. Olsen, who will work closely with Wang in Kimberly, explained Wang’s position has been mostly vacant since Gale Kleinkopf retired in 2003, with another scientist filling in for a few years in the in- terim. Wang will be in charge of the unique potato storage Family: Her mother, Minsang Zhang, and father, Hongpeng Wang, live in Central China, and her uncle, Renyi Zhang, is an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M. IDIN16-1/#17 Hometown: Twin Falls, Idaho. research facility in Kimberly. “What she’s figuring out will help us make a lot of rec- ommendations to growers,” Olsen said. “We see the (stor- age) responses. We need to understand at a more minute depth what are some of the mechanisms going on and why we see those responses.” Wang believes working in Idaho’s famous potato indus- try will open up grant opportu- nities, as well as the potential for her research to have a big impact on a large number of growers. “Idaho is the center of pota- to production in this country, and I’m really glad I can be near to those crucial growers and processors,” Wang said. “I’m very sure I will learn a lot from them.” This story first appeared Feb. 6, 2015. ...with PARMA ® Combination Boxes. Hydraulic Driven Spinner attachment spreads compost, manure, bedding and dry material with an even, consistent spread pattern. with Now Available ter a a Vertical Be Attachment!!! Convert box from spreading manure to hauling forage in a matter of minutes. Quality built components throughout assure long life and superb performance season after season and load after load. www.parmacompany.com ® parmacom@parmacompany.com 208.722.5116 IDIN16-1/#17 KIMBERLY, Idaho — Yi Wang aims to help the Idaho potato industry better un- derstand the physiological mechanisms responsible for problems that may take place in potatoes during storage. Wang, 29, who started March 20 as the University of Idaho’s new potato stor- age physiologist, has already made a name for herself as a national leader in the potato industry. As a post-doctoral re- searcher with University of Wisconsin-Madison, she supervised agronomic trials in six states — Wisconsin, Maine, North Dakota, Min- nesota, Idaho, Washington and Oregon — to test new, low-acrylamide potato breed- ing lines. In 2002, scientists discov- ered acrylamide, a chemical found in carbohydrate-rich foods cooked at high tem- peratures, was a possible car- cinogen. In response, potato processors launched the Na- tional Fry Processing Trial, funded with a Specialty Crop Research Initiative grant, to develop low-acrylamide potato varieties. As supervi- sor of the agronomic trials, Wang maintains a database on yield, quality and other attributes of varieties coming out of the fry processing trial. She’ll continue leading the national agronomic trials while in Idaho, until the proj- ect ends in August of 2016. Wang, originally from Cen- tral China, earned her Ph.D. in potato physiology at Wis- consin, where her dissertation focused on causes of stem-end disorder in chipping potatoes. She learned the crop problem is strongly correlated with late-season heat stress. She has three major areas of interest for research when she starts work at UI’s Kimberly Research & Extension Center. She plans to investigate the un- derlying physiological mecha- nisms affecting performance of potato varieties in storage, and to identify predictors of success that may be useful to breeders. She hopes to find what causes potatoes to have the light, fluffy texture that processors and quick-serve restaurants favor. “This is really a new re- search area,” Wang said. “Al- most no one has done anything on it before, but it’s very im- portant to the industry.” IDIN16-1/#17
