'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 AN ULTRA-HIGH DENSITY GENETIC LINKAGE MAP OF POTATO AS A PLATFORM FOR PHYSICAL/GENE CONTENT MAPPING AND MAP BASED CLONING D. MILBOURNE, E. ISIDORE, H. VAN OS, S. ANDRZEJEWSKI, J. BAKKER, J. BUNTJER, B. CAROMEL, H. VAN ECK, B. GHAREEB, V. LEFEBVRE, E. RITTER, J.R. VAN DER VOORT, F. ROUSSELLE-BOURGEOIS, S. LINTON, J. McNICOLL, K. McLEAN, G. BRYAN,  R. WAUGH Genomics Unit, SCRI, Dundee, Scotland

We are creating a genetic linkage map of the potato genome consisting of approximately 10,000 AFLP markers – the most extensive genetic linkage map in any plant species to date.  We outline the principles by which this map was constructed, and its use, in conjunction with a large insert BAC library, to create a ‘seeded’ physical map of a region of potato chromosome 5 which harbours several genes of agronomic significance.  We describe the use of a 6 dimensional BAC pooling strategy in conjunction with the AFLP technique to obtain a series of BAC clones in this interval and preliminary gene content information for these BAC clones.  Finally, the utility of the map for physical mapping, map based cloning and marker assisted selection is assessed.