Affiliation:
1. Unidad Profesional Interdisciplinaria de Ingeniería Campus Guanajuato (UPIIG), Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Av. Mineral de Valenciana 200, Puerto Interior, Silao de la Victoria 36275, Guanajuato, Mexico
2. Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Unidad Irapuato, Irapuato 36824, Guanajuato, Mexico
3. CONAHCYT-Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noreste, SC., Instituto Politécnico Nacional 195, Playa Palo de Santa Rita Sur, La Paz 23096, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Abstract
Potato tubers are reproductive and storage organs, enabling their survival. Unraveling the molecular mechanisms that regulate tuberization is crucial for understanding how potatorespond to environmental stress situations and for potato breeding. Previously, we did a transcriptomic analysis of potato microtuberization without light. This showed that important cellular processes like ribosomal proteins, cell cycle, carbon metabolism, oxidative stress, fatty acids, and phytosterols (PS) biosynthesis were closely connected in a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. Research on PS function during potato tuberization has been scarce. PS plays a critical role in regulating membrane permeability and fluidity, and they are biosynthetic precursors of brassinosteroids (BRs) in plants, which are critical in regulating gene expression, cell division, differentiation, and reproductive biology. Within a PPI network, we found a module of 15 genes involved in the PS biosynthetic process. Darkness, as expected, activated the mevalonate (MVA) pathway. There was a tight interaction between three coding gene products for HMGR3, MVD2, and FPS1, and the gene products that synthetize PS, including CAS1, SMO1, BETAHSD, CPI1, CYP51, FACKEL, HYDRA1, SMT2, SMO2, STE1, and SSR1. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) confirmed the expression analysis of ten specific genes involved in the biosynthesis of PS. This manuscript discusses the potential role of genes involved in PS biosynthesis during microtuber development.