Lenape (B5141-6) is a

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

first released in 1967 and named after the Lenape Native American tribe, but it had to be pulled from the market in 1970 after findings of its high

glycoalkaloid Glycoalkaloids are a family of chemical compounds derived from alkaloids to which sugar groups are appended. Several are potentially toxic, most notably the poisons commonly found in the plant species ''Solanum dulcamara'' (bittersweet nightshade) ...

content. It was bred by Wilford Mills of Pennsylvania State University in collaboration with the Wise Potato Chip Company. The Lenape potato was produced by crossing Delta Gold with a wild Peruvian potato (''

Solanum chacoense ''Solanum chacoense'' is a species of wild potato. It is native to South America, where it can be found in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, and Paraguay. It "is one of the most widely distributed wild potato species."Miller, J. T. and D ...

'') known for its resistance to insects. It was selected for its high

specific gravity Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water at its densest ...

(percentage

dry matter The dry matter or dry weight is a measurement of the mass of something when completely dried. Analysis of food The dry matter of plant and animal material consists of all its constituents excluding water. The dry matter of food includes carboh ...

) and low sugar content which made it ideal for producing

potato chip A potato chip (North American English; often just chip) or crisp (British and Irish English) is a thin slice of potato that has been either deep fried, baked, or air fried until crunchy. They are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or ap ...

s but it was also immune to

potato virus A Potato virus A (PVA) is a plant pathogenic virus of the family ''Potyviridae''. See also * Viral diseases of potato Viral diseases of potato are a group of diseases caused by different types of viruses that affect potato crops worldwide and, ...

and resistant to common strains of

late blight ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by ''Alternaria solani'', is also often called " ...

. It is of medium-late maturity and produces round, white tubers with shallow eyes.

Glycoalkaloid content

After the Lenape variety was released for commercial production, a potato breeder in Ontario ate some to see if they might be suitable as new potatoes but soon felt nauseated. When the same occurred next time he ate them, he sent a sample to be analysed by a vegetable biochemist, Dr. Ambrose Zitnak of the University of Guelph, who found they contained exceptionally high levels of

glycoalkaloids Glycoalkaloids are a family of chemical compounds derived from alkaloids to which sugar groups are appended. Several are potentially toxic, most notably the poisons commonly found in the plant species ''Solanum dulcamara'' (bittersweet nightshade) ...

(mainly solanine and

chaconine α-Chaconine is a steroidal glycoalkaloid that occurs in plants of the family Solanaceae. It is a natural toxicant produced in green potatoes and gives the potato a bitter taste. Tubers produce this glycoalkaloid in response to stress, providing ...

), the natural toxins found in potatoes that help protect them from pests and disease. Lenape potatoes collected from around Canada were found to contain over 16–35 mg of glycoalkaloids per 100 g of fresh potato compared to 3–18 mg in other varieties. Samples grown at 39 locations around the US had an average of 29 mg per 100 g of potato but ranged from 16–65 mg compared to an average of 8 mg for five other varieties. Previously, high levels of glycoalkaloids in potatoes were associated with damage during harvest or potatoes that turned green due to exposure to light, rather than being genetically determined. The variety was removed from the market in 1970 and scientists recommended that future new potato varieties be tested for their glycoalkaloid content before widespread distribution.

Unintended risks

The variety has been cited as an example of how conventional plant breeding can produce varieties with high levels of toxins and this has been compared with the relatively lower risk of potential unintended health effects from genetically engineered crops (GM crops). In 1992 the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that critics of GM crops cited it as an example of the problems they expected GM crops to create, despite the Lenape being a conventionally bred variety and not GM, while advocates noted that lessons learned from Lenape meant that regulations were in place to prevent a recurrence. In the case of the Lenape potato, the exceptionally high glycoalkaloid levels were likely due to the unintended introduction (through cross breeding) of new glycoalkaloid genes from the wild Peruvian parent. Genetic engineering avoids the risk of unintended introduction of new genes, as only selected genes that have been characterized in detail are introduced.

Use in breeding

Lenape was kept for use in breeding and breeders selected for progeny containing high dry matter but rejected those with high glycoalkaloids. Lenape is a parent of chipping varieties including

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, Belchip and Snowden and a grandparent of several others. A study published in 1998 found that Lenape had the highest dry matter content of chipping varieties released in the USA and concluded that the release of Lenape marked a "major advance in chipping quality" and was particularly responsible for a trend of increased dry matter content in newer varieties.

References

{{Potato cultivars Potato cultivars