Intraspecific diversity as a reservoir for heat-stress tolerance in sweet potato

Wild relatives of potato may bolster its adaptation to new niches under future climate scenarios

“…The interpretation of this is that when species are prioritized using this metric they are very likely to hold the abiotic stress tolerance within the climate class of interest. Additionally, although this study uses 72 wild relative species of potato, it does not incorporate the genetic diversity and potential adaptability traits available in landrace varieties, an area ripe for future investigation (Heider et al, 2021), while also avoiding current potato germplasm resources due to the difficulty of assessing abiotic stress in potato from polysomic genetics and high heterozygosity (Handayani et al, 2019). Lastly, PWRP is a metric to improve selection of germplasm for interspecific breeding in a local niche, but does not consider how this selection may alter the final potato product from the current local market preference.…”

“…Future projections provide a way to create realistic assessments of means and variances of future climate scenarios. Adaptation strategies include: (i) sourcing varieties that are adapted to the expected future local climate, (ii) assessing crop wild relatives for naturally evolved adaptations, (iii) changing the crops grown in a particular area, (iv) defining different agroecosystems for existing crops, (v) substantially changing agronomic practices such as row spacing, irrigation and planting date, and (vi) abandoning current production locations with human population moving to areas amenable to current practices/cultivars (Burke et al, 2009;Heider et al, 2021;Pironon et al, 2019;Ramirez-Villegas & Khoury, 2013;Sloat et al, 2020). Despite research exploring the potential for shifts in existing production zones or toward zones forecasted for potato production compatibility (Hijmans, ;Leemans & Solomon, 1993), such shifts present potential tradeoffs (Tanentzap et al, 2015).…”

The Defense Response Involved in Sweetpotato Resistance to Root-Knot Nematode Meloidogyne incognita: Comparison of Root Transcriptomes of Resistant and Susceptible Sweetpotato Cultivars With Respect to Induced and Constitutive Defense Responses

“…Sweetpotato ( Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam) is the fifth most important food crop in the world and a representative root vegetable, with a total production of 91.8 million tons worldwide and an annual harvest area of 7.7 million ha. Sweetpotato is cultivated primarily in Asia and Africa ( Afuape et al, 2014 ; Heider et al, 2021 ), where it plays an important role in sustainable agriculture, as it serves as a valuable source of nutrients, including minerals, vitamins and pigments, as well as processed foods, animal feeds and alcohol ( Diaz et al, 2014 ; Grace et al, 2014 ). However, given the narrow genetic base of cultivated sweetpotato, together with its complex hexaploid genome, the development of sweetpotato cultivars with pathogen resistance, high yield, high quality and other desirable traits remains challenging.…”

Overexpression of IbFAD8 Enhances the Low-Temperature Storage Ability and Alpha-Linolenic Acid Content of Sweetpotato Tuberous Roots

“…Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam) is regarded as the fifth most important starch-rich crop that shows high potential for achieving the sustainable development goals, despite the ongoing climate change, owing to its high stress tolerance and ease of cultivation (Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], 2020; Heider et al, 2021). Sweetpotato shows superior carbohydrate production capability than other starch-rich crops, such as wheat (Triticum aestivum), corn (Zea mays), potato (Solanum tuberosum), and cassava (Manihot esculenta), when grown on marginal lands (Ziska et al, 2009).…”