Variation Of Mineral Contents With Nutritional Interest In A Collection Of Solanum Tuberosum Group Phureja Tubers

Colombia has a biodiversity centre of diploid potatoes located at south of the country. This study evaluated the amounts of potassium (K), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) in a biodiversity panel of potato tubers, constituting native cultivars, accessions of the Working Collection of Potato Breeding Program at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (CCC) and commercial cultivars. The highest quantity of minerals found were as follows: 34 333 +/- 4509 mg K kg(-1) potato dry weight (DW; CCC112), 1965 +/- 898 mg Ca kg(-1) potato DW (CCC23), 87.5 +/- 8.8 mg Fe kg(-1) potato DW (CCC116) and 60.7 +/- 5.1 mg Zn kg(-1) potato DW (CCC31). As compared to those in commercial cultivars, the currently evaluated tubers had an increase of 1.4, 12.5, 3.5 and 3.6-fold in K, Ca, Fe and Zn. These genotypes can be used in the future breeding programmes to enhance specific mineral contents in tubers.