The book is one in a series on Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Crop Plants edited by Chittaranjan Kole. Twenty authors from Europe and North America have enthusiastically contributed 12 chapters, including an introduction to the crop and its wild relatives followed by classical genetics and traditional breeding, and a conclusion on future challenges and prospects. The bulk of the book comprises nine chapters, which review recent progress and current research in molecular breeding: use of molecular markers (including DArT) for linkage maps, mapping simply inherited and complex traits and association mapping; cloning late blight resistant genes (including promising ones from Solanum bulbocastanum); molecular cytogenetics (including fluorescence in situ hybridization) and transcriptomics (ESTs and microarrays), proteomics and metabolomics. For ease of production, nine colour plates are grouped at the end of the book, but with black and white versions in the text. The reader will get a good feel for the techniques currently being used and the research problems being tackled. Although the results will inform future potato breeding, it is difficult to predict the timescale, impact and extent of actual use by potato breeders. The same will be true of the potato genome sequence, which is now available. It is worth remembering that 20 years after the advent of molecular markers, we are only now beginning to see their use in breeding. However, it is clear that many of the benefits for potato crop improvement will come through transgenic potatoes and this will require societal acceptance of genetically modified potatoes.