Genetics, Molecular Breeding, and Biotechnology for Root and Tuber Crop Improvement, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2024) | Viewed by 5970

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: potato; abiotic stress; high temperature; drought stress; salt stress; tuberization process; plant biotechnology (RNAi, gene editing, transgenic); gene family evolution
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: potato; sweet potato; molecular breeding; genetic analysis; GWAS; germplasm resourse; biotic and abotic stress resistance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No.12 Zhongguancun Nandajie, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: potato breeding and genetics
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Guest Editor
Cash Crops Research Institute, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanning 530007, China
Interests: cassava; kudzu root; germplasm resourse; biotechnology; breeding; cultivation; rapid propagation technology; seedling production

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Root and tuber crops include potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, taro, yams, ginger, konjac, kudzu, pinellia and others, which are important foods, industrial materials or medicinal crops. Their yield potential, production, adaptability and quality are potential objectives for breeders worldwide. However, root and tuber crop production still faces numerous challenges, including the impacts of biotic and abiotic factors, in addition to the demand for improved yield and nutritional quality. At present, molecular genetics and breeding mainly involves biotechnologies such as QTL, GWAS, map-based cloning, omics analysis and gene or genome editing, which have been widely studied and achieved significant progress in model plants. Therefore, we are developing this Special Issue, which will provide a forum in which to address these problems and present new progress in root and tuber crop research.

This Special Issue will include articles (original research papers, reviews, communications) mainly focused on the following subjects:

  • Regulation of growth and development, tuberization process, nutrient absorption, metabolism, biotic or abiotic stress response and other physiological process of root and tuber crops;
  • Dissection of molecular mechanisms for yield or quality traits in root and tuber crops via genetics, omics or informatics strategies;
  • Yield or quality improvement and molecular breeding of root and tuber crops using genetic and genomic tools;
  • Analysis on the nutritional quality, metabolic products, active compounds and medicinal value of root and tuber crops.
  • Discussion on important issues on root and tuber crop cultivation and production.

Dr. Hongju Jian
Dr. Kai Zhang
Prof. Dr. Jianfei Xu
Prof. Dr. Huabing Yan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • tuberization process
  • molecular mechanism
  • biotic/abiotic stress
  • functional analysis
  • storage root development
  • metabolism and metabolic products
  • nutritional quality
  • genetic improvement
  • gene editing

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 17270 KiB  
Article
Differentially Expressed Genes Identification of Kohlrabi Seedlings (Brassica oleracea var. caulorapa L.) under Polyethylene Glycol Osmotic Stress and AP2/ERF Transcription Factor Family Analysis
by Shuanling Bian, Mengliang Zhao, Huijuan Zhang and Yanjing Ren
Plants 2024, 13(8), 1167; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13081167 - 22 Apr 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1296
Abstract
Osmotic stress is a condition in which plants do not get enough water due to changes in environmental factors. Plant response to osmotic stress is a complex process involving the interaction of different stress-sensitive mechanisms. Differentially expressed genes and response mechanisms of kohlrabi [...] Read more.
Osmotic stress is a condition in which plants do not get enough water due to changes in environmental factors. Plant response to osmotic stress is a complex process involving the interaction of different stress-sensitive mechanisms. Differentially expressed genes and response mechanisms of kohlrabi have not been reported under osmotic stress. A total of 196,642 unigenes and 33,040 differentially expressed unigenes were identified in kohlrabi seedlings under polyethylene glycol osmotic stress. AP2/ERF, NAC and eight other transcription factor family members with a high degree of interaction with CAT and SOD antioxidant enzyme activity were identified. Subsequently, 151 AP2/ERF genes were identified and analyzed. Twelve conserved motifs were searched and all AP2/ERF genes were clustered into four groups. A total of 149 AP2/ERF genes were randomly distributed on the chromosome, and relative expression level analysis showed that BocAP2/ERF genes of kohlrabi have obvious specificity in different tissues. This study lays a foundation for explaining the osmotic stress resistance mechanism of kohlrabi and provides a theoretical basis for the functional analysis of BocAP2/ERF transcription factor family members. Full article
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11 pages, 1832 KiB  
Article
Control of Plant Height and Lateral Root Development via Stu-miR156 Regulation of SPL9 Transcription Factor in Potato
by Hongyu Luo, Jiangwei Yang, Shengyan Liu, Shigui Li, Huaijun Si and Ning Zhang
Plants 2024, 13(5), 723; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13050723 - 4 Mar 2024
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1780
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous, non-coding small-molecule RNAs that usually regulate the expression of target genes at the post-transcriptional level. miR156 is one of a class of evolutionarily highly conserved miRNA families. SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) transcription factor is one [...] Read more.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous, non-coding small-molecule RNAs that usually regulate the expression of target genes at the post-transcriptional level. miR156 is one of a class of evolutionarily highly conserved miRNA families. SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) transcription factor is one of the target genes that is regulated by miR156. SPL transcription factors are involved in regulating plant growth and development, hormone response, stress response, and photosynthesis. In the present study, transgenic potato plants with overexpressed miR156 were obtained via the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method. The results showed that the expression levels of the target gene, StSPL9, were all downregulated in the transgenic plants with overexpressed Stu-miR156. Compared with those of the control plants, the plant height and root length of the transgenic plants were significantly decreased, while the number of lateral roots was significantly increased. These results revealed that the miR156/SPLs module was involved in regulating potato plant height and root growth. Full article
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15 pages, 3852 KiB  
Article
Rapid Identification of High-Temperature Responsive Genes Using Large-Scale Yeast Functional Screening System in Potato
by Ke Wang, Shiqi Wen, Lina Shang, Yang Li, Ziyan Li, Weixi Chen, Yong Li, Hongju Jian and Dianqiu Lyu
Plants 2023, 12(21), 3712; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12213712 - 28 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1804
Abstract
As the third largest global food crop, potato plays an important role in ensuring food security. However, it is particularly sensitive to high temperatures, which seriously inhibits its growth and development, thereby reducing yield and quality and severely limiting its planting area. Therefore, [...] Read more.
As the third largest global food crop, potato plays an important role in ensuring food security. However, it is particularly sensitive to high temperatures, which seriously inhibits its growth and development, thereby reducing yield and quality and severely limiting its planting area. Therefore, rapid, and high-throughput screening for high-temperature response genes is highly significant for analyzing potato high-temperature tolerance molecular mechanisms and cultivating new high-temperature-tolerant potato varieties. We screened genes that respond to high temperature by constructing a potato cDNA yeast library. After high-temperature treatment at 39 °C, the yeast library was subjected to high-throughput sequencing, and a total of 1931 heat resistance candidate genes were screened. Through GO and KEGG analysis, we found they were mainly enriched in “photosynthesis” and “response to stimuli” pathways. Subsequently, 12 randomly selected genes were validated under high temperature, drought, and salt stress using qRT-PCR. All genes were responsive to high temperature, and most were also induced by drought and salt stress. Among them, five genes ectopically expressed in yeast enhance yeast’s tolerance to high temperatures. We provide numerous candidate genes for potato response to high temperature stress, laying the foundation for subsequent analysis of the molecular mechanism of potato response to high temperature. Full article
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