Climate Change and Consequences for Potato Production: a Review of Tolerance to Emerging Abiotic Stress

Abstract

Potato is a major global crop that has an important role to play in food security, reducing poverty and improving human nutrition. Enhanced atmospheric CO 2 concentrations provide an opportunity to increase potato yields in the future, but this will only be possible if the potato crop can cope with the other consequences of climate change caused by this rise in CO 2 . While climate change may impact biotic stress either positively or negatively, abiotic stresses are likely to be greatly increased and become a major threat to potato production. Increasing heat, drought and salinity stress will drive the need for greater understanding of genes, traits and management techniques that allow potato to cope with these stresses. In this review we identify some of the key physiological and molecular adaptations of potato to these stresses and propose an ideotype which should include 1) optimal stomatal regulation to balance water loss and heat stress in leaves, 2) production of metabolites and transporters to scavenge reactive oxygen species and partition toxic elements, 3) enhanced root systems to maximise water capture, 4) maintenance of tuberisation under stress conditions and 5) stress avoidance by accelerating crop development and reducing time to yield. We discuss potential ways to achieve this ideotype, emphasising the need to benefit from genetic diversity in landrace and wild material by screening for traits in combined stress environments appropriate to future agroecosystems.

WITHDRAWN: Physiological and molecular changes to short and prolonged heat in highlands China potato genotype

“…The capacity of photosynthesis was decreased because the inhibition of CO 2 fixation and chlorophyll loss [9], carbon transport is also sensitive to high temperature which results in starch accumulation decreased [10], elevated temperature also have negative impacts on potato skin finish [11]. Additionally, high temperatures during tuber maturation have a negative effect on tuber dormancy and can cause the potatoes to start sprouting [12]. Due to the global climate warming resulting in temperature rising, it is strongly necessary to raise heat-tolerant potato varieties to cope with elevated temperature that sustain high yields under 4 these conditions [7].…”

Climate-Smart Potatoes

“…By incorporating more organic material like composts and green manures [36], the soils themselves can be managed to increase their fertility, workability and how much moisture they hold. Likewise, encouraging the plants to develop deeper roots-by providing irrigation in large sustained drenchings rather than lots of small sprinklings-means that drying out of surface soils during a drought will do less damage [37].…”

Agrobiotechnology Goes Wild: Ancient Local Varieties as Sources of Bioactives

“…These studies have focused on abiotic factors, such as waterlogging, drought, and temperature fluctuations related to climate change [19,20]. Studies in the literature have reported that, in many cases, the most efficient and least costly response to stress is the use of new adapted varieties [21] and, in this respect, a large availability of germplasm could facilitate the task.…”