No abstract

Vitamin E (α‐tocopherol) is a lipid‐soluble essential vitamin recognized for improvement in degenerative health conditions, abating cancer risk, and coronary heart diseases in humans. While in plants, it acts as a free radical scavenger that protects cells against oxidative and photooxidative damages. The daily consumption of potato makes it a key target for biofortification with vitamins for eliminating vitamin deficiency in large populations. Vitamin E biosynthetic pathway genes have been overexpressed in plants via genetic engineering to enhance the α‐tocopherol content. Major genes involved in the vitamin E biosynthesis in plants viz. the homogentisate‐phytyltransferase (At‐HPT) and γ‐tocopherol‐methyltransferase (At‐γ‐TMT), isolated from Arabidopsis were constitutively overexpressed in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). The molecular analyses of independent transgenic lines revealed a stable integration of both the genes in the plant genome. The transgenic potato exhibited significantly improved vitamin E contents up to 173–258% in comparison to the untransformed control plants. Transgenic tissues also exhibited increased cellular antioxidant enzymes, proline, osmolyte, and glutathione content that are directly correlated with the ability of the plant to withstand abiotic stresses imposed by salt (NaCl) and heavy metal (CdCl2). Therefore, the current strategy of increasing the vitamin E content in potato with enhanced tolerance to abiotic stresses might greatly aid efforts to engineer crops for human health benefits and greater yield under adverse environmental conditions.

The study aimed to explore the impacts of distinctive qualities of the LED light (such as to low power consumption, lesser production costs, longer operational lifetime and cool light emission with specific monochromatic wavelength) on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) growth and development including plant height, number of leaves, root length, fresh and dry weight etc. The accumulation of phyto-pigments, soluble proteins and sugars, free radical scavenging activity and overall tuber yield were also evaluated. Enhanced plant height with increased diameter and branching was observed with the plant growing under the B100 and R30B70 LED light combination. Similarly, total number of leaves, leaf surface area, health index, phyto-pigments and tuber yield of potato was also significantly increased as compared to the plant growing under the W100 as control. Soluble proteins and sugar content and free radical scavenging enzyme activity were also significantly enhanced in the R30B70 LED light combination. Tubers yield per plants were also enhanced under the RB combination of the LED light. The current study indicated that the combination of R and B LED lights proved better for plant growth and development in a controlled environment and the R30B70 is the best combinational spectra for increased growth and tuber yield of potato plants. Therefore, the precise management of the irradiance and wavelength may hold promise in maximizing the economic efficiency of potato production, and quality of this important vegetables grown in controlled environments.

In the present study, we examined the role of ascorbic acid (AsA, vitamin C) and/or 24-epibrassinolide (EBL, an active BR) in mitigation of salt-induced stress in potato (Solanum tuberousum L). The 10-d-old plants were exposed to 150 mM NaCl and they were subsequently treated by ASA and/or EBL. The salt stress reduced significantly the plant growth, tuber yield, total chlorophyll and increased proline content and electrolyte leakage in the leaves. Toxic effects induced by salt stress were completely overcome by the combined exogenous application of AsA and EBL. The AsA and/or EBL treatments improved the growth parameters of the salt treated plants, such as shoot length, tuber number and size, fresh and dry mass and other physiological parameters. Our data also indicated that applications of AsA and EBL up-regulated the stress regulating plant hormone such as IAA, IBA and activities of the antioxidant enzymes, such as catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and under salt stress. Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(4): 655-667

No abstract