Transgenic Approaches for Nutritional Enhancement of Potato

Abstract

Potatoes provide an excellent source of carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, carotenoids, anthocyanins, and several other metabolites which play an important role in human nutrition. These bioactive compounds are effective in preventing diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart-related issues. In addition to their industrial uses, potatoes are a major focus of genetic engineering programs for the modification of nutritional properties. Several important candidate genes operating in phenylpropanoid mechanism, ascorbic acid biosynthesis pathway, carbohydrate metabolism, steroidal glycoalkaloid biosynthesis pathway, and other-related metabolic steps have been cloned and characterized at the biochemical and molecular levels. Overexpression and down regulation of genes operating in these pathways has revealed important insights into improved nutritional quality. Expression of a transgene has successfully resulted in increasing carotenoids, anthocyanins, and vitamin content in transgenic tubers. Reduction in glycoalkaloid content, enzymatic browning, flesh color, and chipping quality has been achieved via modification of the genes involved in the respective biochemical pathway in potatoes. Transgenic approaches not only resulted in improved quality but also helped in understanding the biochemical and molecular mechanisms associated with the regulation of genes in these pathways. Although the commercialization of transgenic potatoes is still hindered by consumers approval and ethical restrictions, the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 system holds promise as a non-transgenic alternative for developing nutritionally enhanced potatoes.