2005 Annual Report 4d.Progress report. This report serves to document research being conducted under a specific cooperative agreement between ARS and Washington State University to look at nutritive qualities of potato. Additional details of research can be found in the report of the parent CRIS 5354-21220-002-00D ‘Potato Variety Improvement through Gene Transfer and Virological Studies”. We are examining compounds found in potato tubers that may influence potato’s nutritive value either positively or negatively. We use a combination of LC-MS and GC to detect and quantitate compounds of interest. We have developed analytical methods that are faster than existing methods and are thus more conducive to evaluating a large diversity of varieties and germplasm. We are examining amino acid profiles in potato and determining the asparagine content, the amino acid involved in acrylamide formation. We are also identifying phenolic compounds in potato that have potential nutritive value. We are in the process of examining which environmental factors most influence levels of compounds of interest and will assess gene expression in pathways involved in their synthesis.