Objective In order to understand the genetic background and genetic relationship of sweetpotato cultivars and provide references for parents selection and effective cross combination in sweetpotato breeding, the sweetpotato cultivars bred in Guangdong Province from 1978 to 2016 were investigated and summarized.

Method Based on the information of 57 sweetpotato cultivars, which passed the national identification or provincial approval, bred in Guangdong Province from 1978 to 2016, their profiles, parental source, pedigree and derived cultivars were analyzed.

Result Mainly bred by purposeful hybridization between varieties(59.6%)or polycrossing(29.8%), Guangdong sweetpotato cultivars mainly include fresh food and fresh food and forage dual-purpose types, accounting for 86.0%. 57 cultivars could be ultimately traced to 61 direct parents and 42 original parents. Yubeibai, Zhanshu 75-57, Pushu 3 and Xinzhutou were the most frequently used original parents, and over 14 cultivars were derived from them. The pedigree of sweetpotato cultivars bred in Guangdong Province was mainly composed of landraces or early local bred cultivars and their derivatives, which could be clearly divided into four families: Zhanshu 75-57 family, Guangjie family, Guangpu family and other family. These released sweetpotato cultivars have been used as direct parents, and 50 new sweetpotato cultivars have been bred, some of which have been widely used in Guangdong Province, even the whole country.

Conclusion The sweetpotato cultivars bred in Guangdong Province and their parents showed obvious "Guangdong features". In order to broaden the genetic basis of sweetpotato cultivars, it is necessary to continue to widely introduce and collect excellent sweetpotato germplasm to Guangdong Province, and accurately identify and evaluate the germplasm resources especially local germplasm resources for the breeding of superior parents.