Advances in potato functional genomics: implications for crop improvement

Recent advances and challenges in potato improvement using CRISPR/Cas genome editing

“…As the main representatives of tuber crops and vegetatively reproducing polyploids, potatoes are frequently selected to test the usefulness of the latest NBTs aimed at improving plant quality and productivity (Hameed et al 2018 ; Tussipkan and Manabayeva 2021 ; Sharma et al 2022 ). Among the potato tetraploid cultivars, Désirée is most commonly used in studies involving the application of CRISPR/Cas technologies (Nahirñak et al 2022 ; Tiwari et al 2022 ; Sharma et al 2022 ).…”

“…For this cultivar, various research tools are currently available, ranging from numerous established protocols for genetic manipulation to large amounts of data for omics studies and the recently released SNP map (Sevestre et al 2020 ; Nahirñak et al 2022 ). However, Désirée is not an ideal candidate for testing genome editing approaches; the analyses of quantitative traits, the selection of candidate genes underlying these traits, and the screening of mutated genes are more complex and time-consuming in tetraploid cultivars (Nahirñak et al 2022 ; Sharma et al 2022 ). Therefore, potatoes with a low ploidy level, such as the wild species S. chacoense , and with reduced ploidy, such as artificially generated dihaploids (DHs), are good candidates for reverse genetics studies and testing CRISPR/Cas techniques (Brigneti et al 2004 ; Duangpan et al 2013 ; Butler et al 2015 , 2016 ).…”

“…As potato is also used as a research model in plant molecular physiology, improving the effectiveness of CRISPR/Cas techniques for potato genome editing is expected to positively influence the development of functional genomics research. So far, RNA silencing technologies are the most successful approaches for functional gene studies in potato (Sharma et al 2022 ). However, the application of target genome editing technologies, such as TALENs and CRISPR/Cas, which allow to generate a total (full allelic) gene knockout even in polyploid plants, may result in more unambiguous phenotypic effects compared to gene silencing at the transcription level (Guo et al 2016 ; Wilson et al 2019 ).…”

“…In general, the tools for gene function disruption are based on either RNA targeting (RNA silencing) (Guo et al 2016 ) or genome mutagenesis. Both approaches have been adapted for potato plants (Sharma et al 2022 ).…”

“…The RNA silencing technologies are based on natural and evolutionarily conserved mechanisms in which double-stranded (dsRNA) or hairpin-structured RNA (hrRNA) trigger a reaction cascade ultimately resulting in the degradation of the target mRNA (Guo et al 2016 ). Due to their precision and effectiveness, and their applicability in polyploid organisms, RNA silencing technologies, especially those based on RNAi, are widely used in potato research (Sharma et al 2022 ). Stable potato modification with RNA expression constructs can be carried out using standard transformation methods.…”