Biotechnological improvement of nutritional and therapeutic value of cultivated potato

Abstract

Genetic engineering is recognized as a powerful tool for altering the genetic characteristic of crop plants. Genetic engineering has tremendous potential in developing improved potato varieties with desired agronomic traits and has been utilized for improvement of several crop plants including potato to enhance essential amino acid, protein and lipids/carbohydrates contents as well to improve stress tolerance. The pathway engineering of amino acid revealed dramatic changes in essential amino acid content and protein quality. Similarly, the vitamin pathway engineering of potato has been proved to enhance the vitamin content with increased cellular antioxidant activities. Secondary metabolites such as flavonoids have also been altered through the genetic engineering of potato. This review provides detailed reports on the advances made in genetic transformation of potato for enrichment in its nutritional and therapeutic value by an increase in functional secondary metabolites, carbohydrate, essential amino acids, proteins, lipids, vitamins and edible vaccines.

Development of Efficient, Reproducible and Stable Agrobacterium-Mediated Genetic Transformation of Five Potato Cultivars

“…Potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) is a primary non-cereal food crop and ranks 4th in the world because of its high productivity, following corn ( Zea mays L.), rice ( Oryza sativa L.), and wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) in terms of yield, acreage and value ( 1 ). Potato is considered one of auspicious crop to overcome the challenges of poverty and hunger worldwide ( 2 ). Turkey is an important potato producing country globally.…”

Strategies of Plant Biotechnology to Meet the Increasing Demand of Food and Nutrition in India

“…In quality improvement programs of potato, the priorities have been to strengthen disease-and pest-resistance, to propel yields, and to increase adaptability to biotic and abiotic conditions -for instance, a synthetic antifreeze protein gene expressed in plants decreased leakage of electrolytes from leaves at freezing temperatures [23]. Marked advances have been made in genetic transformation of potato to enrich in its nutritional and therapeutic values by augmenting functional secondary metabolites, carbohydrates, essential amino acids, proteins, lipids, vitamins and edible vaccines [24].…”