Search Results (486)

Enzymatic browning, driven by polyphenol oxidase (PPO), remains a major postharvest challenge for potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), reducing product quality, shelf life, and consumer acceptance. To mitigate this trait in the elite tetraploid cultivar ‘Yagana-INIA’, we applied a geminivirus-derived CRISPR–Cas9 system to edit the StPPO genes most highly expressed in tubers, StPPO1 and particularly StPPO2. A paired-gRNA strategy generated a double-cut deletion in StPPO1, while StPPO2 editing required a complementary single-gRNA screening workflow. High-resolution fragment analysis and sequencing identified three StPPO2-edited lines, including one that lacked GFP, Cas9, and Rep/RepA sequences, confirming a transgene-free editing outcome. Edited tubers exhibited visibly reduced browning relative to wild type, and biochemical assays showed decreased PPO activity consistent with targeted disruption of StPPO2. Amplicon sequencing verified monoallelic editing at the gRNA2 site in the non-transgenic line. These results demonstrate the utility of a replicon-based CRISPR system for achieving targeted, transgene-free edits in tetraploid potato and identify a non-GM StPPO2-edited line with improved postharvest quality under Chile’s regulatory framework. Full article

The study investigates the use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in agriculture, focusing on their potential to enhance the immune response of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) plants against phytopathogenic attacks. The research highlights how AgNPs, stabilized by biologically active polymers polyhexamethylene biguanide and tallow amphopolycarboxyglycinate, can induce oxidative stress. Triple foliar application of 0.1–9.0 g/ha silver nanoparticles at the budding and later stages demonstrated significant efficacy in suppressing diseases caused by Phytophthora infestans and Alternaria solani (over 60%). This effect was linked to the increased activity of peroxidase—over 30–50%—and the decreased catalase activity, indicative of a well-coordinated oxidative stress response to the invasion of P. infestans and A. solani. The results suggest that AgNPs in low concentrations can prime the plant’s innate immune system, enhancing its resistance without detrimental effects on growth parameters, thus contributing to the improved crop yield. These findings underscore the potential of AgNPs not as traditional biocides, but as intelligent elicitors of plant-induced resistance, positioning them as next-generation tools for sustainable crop protection and yield optimization, which can be applied at extremely low doses (less than 10 g/ha of active substance). Full article

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the world’s fourth most important food crop, and despite China producing nearly one quarter of the global yield, its potato production is severely constrained by late blight. Identifying genes associated with pathogenicity is essential for breeding resistant cultivars and strengthening plant protection strategies. Traditional approaches based on differential expression and statistical modeling often fail to capture temporal dynamics or provide interpretable insights. Here, we introduce an LSTM–Transformer hybrid model designed for data-driven discovery of pathogenicity-related genes from gene expression time-series. The analysis was performed on a time-series expression dataset comprising 32,917 genes across 18 samples (three infection time points × six biological replicates per condition). In this study, we identified 200 high-confidence pathogenicity-related genes from potato infection time-series data. These genes are enriched in 15 biologically meaningful pathways, including plant immunity signaling, reactive oxygen species regulation, secondary metabolic processes, and stress-responsive transcriptional programs. Several newly uncovered candidates participate in defense hormone pathways and cell wall modification, suggesting previously unrecognized roles in late blight susceptibility and resistance. By revealing functional groups and regulatory signatures that characterize pathogenicity, this work provides valuable molecular targets for developing late blight-resistant cultivars. The framework integrates a biologically informed temporal–attention architecture, a gene time-series-specific data partitioning strategy, and an interpretable deep analysis module. A final methodological contribution is the use of a temporal attention-based analytical framework that enables reliable gene prioritization from time-series expression data. Full article

White mold (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum) reduces potato yield and quality in Sinaloa, Mexico. This study first evaluated the in vitro efficacy of Trichoderma azevedoi, T. afroharzianum, T. asperellum and T. asperelloides in inhibiting S. sclerotiorum mycelial growth and sclerotia production. Field experiments then assessed a combination of these antagonists, their alternating application with synthetic fungicides, and a fungicide-alone treatment for disease control, sclerotia reduction and yield increase. In vitro, all four Trichoderma species significantly inhibited the pathogen, achieving 60.1–63.1% mycelial suppression in dual culture and 90.3–94.1% via volatile metabolites, with the latter also completely suppressing sclerotia formation. In the field, the Trichoderma combination significantly controlled white mold, reducing plant incidence and severity to 66.0 and 27.1% in 2021 and 55.6 and 18.8% in 2022, while lowering sclerotia production to 32.7 and 14.6 on ten plants, respectively. This control extended to tubers, where incidence and severity were reduced to 1.6% and 0.4% in 2021, and 1.3% and 0.3% in 2022. The alternating application of Trichoderma with synthetic fungicides proved statistically equivalent to the Trichoderma-alone treatment in disease control, while the fungicides-alone treatment was significantly less effective. Potato yield was highest in plots treated with the Trichoderma combination (46.0 and 52.9 t ha⁻¹ in 2021 and 2022, respectively). These results highlight the potential of using a mixture of these four Trichoderma species as a cornerstone of sustainable disease management in Sinaloa, offering effective control of potato white mold while significantly reducing dependence on synthetic fungicides. Full article

The aim of this study was to investigate the sorption efficiency of anionic dyes—Reactive Yellow 84 (RY84) and Reactive Black 5 (RB5)—and cationic dyes—Red 46 (BR46) and Basic Violet 10 (BV10)—onto potato peels (Solanum tuberosum L.). The research scope included characterization of the sorbent material (pH_PZC, FTIR), the effect of pH on dye sorption efficiency, kinetics (pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models, intraparticle diffusion model), and studies on the sorbent’s maximum sorption capacity (Langmuir 1 and 2, and Freundlich isotherms). The point of zero charge (pH_PZC) for potato peels was determined to be pH_PZC = 6.43, indicating a slightly acidic character of the material. The sorption efficiency for RB5, RY84, and BV10 was highest at pH 2, while the efficiency for BR46 was highest at pH 6. The time required to reach sorption equilibrium on the tested sorbent increased with the initial dye concentration and ranged from 180 to 270 min for RB5, RY84, and BV10, and from 45 to 210 min for BR46. The maximum sorption capacity of this material was found to be 20.85 ± 0.33 mg/g and 21.63 ± 0.34 mg/g for RB5 and RY84, respectively, and 10.28 ± 0.24 mg/g and 27.15 ± 0.87 mg/g for BV10 and BR46, respectively. Full article

Phosphate-solubilizing rhizobacteria associated with the Solanum tuberosum L. cultivar ‘Superchola’ were isolated and characterized to improve our understanding of plant growth promotion in agricultural systems. Bacteria were isolated by serial dilutions, and the morphology of the colonies was characterized on nutrient agar culture medium. In addition, morphological identification was achieved by Gram staining. The ability to solubilize phosphate was assessed in Pikovskaya agar culture medium, while molecular identification involved the amplification of the partial 16S rRNA gene using the polymerase chain reaction. In the Píllaro canton, the highest number of colony-forming units per gram of soil was recorded at 9.72 × 10⁹. Among the isolated strains, 62% exhibited circular morphology, 92% had a smooth texture, and 85% displayed entire margins. Notably, 83% of the isolates were Gram-negative, with 50% exhibiting a bacillary form. The most effective phosphate solubilizers were from the Mocha canton, particularly the isolate CC-FCAGP-BSF6, which showed superior solubilization capacity. Molecular identification revealed bacterial isolates from four genera, i.e., Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Lysinibacillus, and Paenibacillus. These strains exhibited significant phosphate solubilization in vitro and resulted in increased leaf area (0.21–0.49, p = 0.038), fresh mass (0.46–0.87, p = 0.014), dry mass (0.092–0.096, p = 0.047), and leaf area index (0.14–0.33, p = 0.026) in the S. tuberosum cultivar ‘Superchola’ in vitro plants. This study identifies bacterial species associated with the rhizosphere of S. tuberosum in Ecuador and highlights their potential for promoting plant growth and solubilizing phosphates. Full article

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a key staple crop in the Peruvian Andes, but its productivity is threatened by fungal pathogens such as Rhizoctonia solani and Alternaria alternata. In this study, 71 native bacterial strains (39 from phyllosphere and 32 from rhizosphere) were isolated from potato plants across five agroecological zones of Peru and characterized for their plant growth-promoting (PGPR) and antagonistic traits. Actinomycetes demonstrated broader enzymatic profiles, with 2ACPP4 and 2ACPP8 showing high proteolytic (68.4%, 63.4%), lipolytic (59.5%, 60.6%), chitinolytic (32.7%, 35.5%) and amylolytic activity (76.3%, 71.5%). Strain 5ACPP5 (Streptomyces decoyicus) produced 42.8% chitinase and solubilized both dicalcium (120.6%) and tricalcium phosphate (122.3%). The highest IAA production was recorded in Bacillus strain 2BPP8 (95.4 µg/mL), while 5ACPP6 was the highest among Actinomycetes (83.4 µg/mL). Siderophore production was highest in 5ACPP5 (412.4%) and 2ACPP4 (406.8%). In vitro antagonism assays showed that 5ACPP5 inhibited R. solani and A. alternata by 86.4% and 68.9%, respectively, while Bacillus strain BPP4 reached 51.0% inhibition against A. alternata. In greenhouse trials, strain 4BPP8 significantly increased fresh tuber weight (11.91 g), while 5ACPP5 enhanced root biomass and reduced stem canker severity. Molecular identification confirmed BPP4 as Bacillus halotolerans and 5ACPP5 as Streptomyces decoyicus. These strains represent promising candidates for the development of bioinoculants for sustainable potato cultivation in Andean systems. Full article

Limited annotated data often constrain accurate yield prediction in underrepresented crops. To address this challenge, we developed a cross-crop deep transfer learning (TL) framework that leverages potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) as the source domain to predict sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) yield using multi-temporal uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV)-based multispectral imagery. A hybrid convolutional–recurrent neural network (CNN–RNN–Attention) architecture was implemented with a robust parameter-based transfer strategy to ensure temporal alignment and feature-space consistency across crops. Cross-crop feature migration analysis showed that predictors capturing canopy vigor, structure, and soil–vegetation contrast exhibited the highest distributional similarity between potato and sweet potato. In comparison, pigment-sensitive and agronomic predictors were less transferable. These robustness patterns were reflected in model performance, as all architectures showed substantial improvement when moving from the minimal 3 predictor subset to the 5–7 predictor subsets, where the most transferable indices were introduced. The hybrid CNN–RNN–Attention model achieved peak accuracy ($R^2\approx 0.64$ and RMSE ≈ 18%) using time-series data up to the tuberization stage with only 7 predictors. In contrast, convolutional neural network (CNN), bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU), and bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) baseline models required 11–13 predictors to achieve comparable performance and often showed reduced or unstable accuracy at higher dimensionality due to redundancy and domain-shift amplification. Two-way ANOVA further revealed that cover crop type significantly influenced yield, whereas nitrogen rate and the interaction term were not significant. Overall, this study demonstrates that combining robustness-aware feature design with hybrid deep TL model enables accurate, data-efficient, and physiologically interpretable yield prediction in sweet potato, offering a scalable pathway for applying TL in other underrepresented root and tuber crops. Full article

Abiotic stresses such as drought and heat severely constrain the growth and productivity of Solanaceae crops, including potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), yet the conserved regulatory mechanisms underlying their stress adaptation remain incompletely understood. Here, we performed an integrative meta-analysis of publicly available transcriptomic datasets, complemented by comparative and evolutionary analyses across the Solanum genus. Functional annotation revealed coordinated transcriptional reprogramming characterized by induction of protective processes, including molecular chaperone activity, oxidative stress responses, and immune signaling, accompanied by repression of photosynthetic and primary metabolic pathways, reflecting energy reallocation under stress conditions. Promoter motif and transcription factor enrichment analyses implicated the bZIP, bHLH, DOF, and BBR/BPC families as central regulators of drought- and heat-induced transcriptional programs. Orthogroup inference and $K_a/K_s$ analysis across representative Solanum species demonstrated a predominance of purifying selection, indicating evolutionary conservation of regulatory network architecture. Integration of motif occurrence, co-expression profiles, and protein–protein interaction data enabled reconstruction of regulatory networks and identification of conserved hub transcription factors coordinating stress responses. Comparative analysis revealed distinct but conserved transcriptional signatures for heat and drought shared between potato and tomato, indicative of conserved abiotic stress strategies across Solanaceae. Full article

The AGC kinase family is crucial for regulating plant disease resistance, integrating hormone signals, managing reactive oxygen species (ROS) metabolism, and maintaining redox balance. However, research on AGC kinases in Solanaceae plants is limited, and the functions of most AGC kinases remain unidentified. Using the tetraploid potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivar ‘Tingsha No. 9’, we conducted a genome-wide identification of the AGC gene family and profiled transcript responses to late-blight (Phytophthora infestans) stress. Additionally, we examined the subcellular localization and characterized the phenotypic responses of overexpression lines of the late-blight–responsive kinase StD6PK under late-blight stress. A total of 141 AGC family members were identified in ‘Qingshu No. 9’, categorized into eight subfamilies. This classification includes one cultivar-specific subfamily that was previously unrecognized, as well as 50 AGC family members within subfamily 1. AGC family members had significant differences in physicochemical characteristics and most of which were located in the nucleus. AGC family members are distributed on 46 chromosomes, with the largest number of chromosome 11 and the least number of chromosome 7. Gene duplication is dominated by whole-genome duplication (WGD) and segmental duplication. Ka/Ks values of all collinear pairs are less than 1. Purification selection drives family evolution in a long evolutionary process. Its promoter is rich in light-responsive, hormone-responsive, and stress-responsive elements, and its expression varies significantly in tissues; and some genes are highly expressed in specific organs. RNA-seq analysis revealed that 78.1% of the members responded to late-blight stress, and the expression levels of the selected eight subfamily members all showed significant increases or decreases after inoculation with late blight. StD6PK (Soltu.Q9.Chr04_A40011450.g) was strongly induced at 48~72 h, and its expression level at 72 h was 5.7 times higher than that at 0 h. Stable transformation of potato demonstrated that overexpression of StD6PK could enhance the resistance of potato to late blight, with subcellular localization revealing its nuclear localization characteristic. This study was the first time to complete the identification of AGC family genome of tetraploid potato ‘Qingshu No. 9’, reveal its evolution and expression characteristics, clarify the response characteristics of StD6PK to late blight, and provide insights into the evolutionary and functional basis of the AGC kinase gene family in potato late blight resistance mechanisms, while supplying genetic resources to accelerate the development of late blight-resistant germplasm. Full article

Phosphorus (P) deficiency is a critical constraint to cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production, while wild potato germplasm is known to harbor traits that enhance tolerance to low P conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the tolerance to P deficiency in cultivated and wild potato accessions from a genebank to identify interesting germplasm for potato breeding. Therefore, ten wild potato accessions and 30 cultivated varieties were evaluated under high (15 mg L⁻¹) and low (3 mg L⁻¹) P regimes for various morphological, physiological, and nutrient uptake traits. Significant genotypic variation was observed across all traits, with notable interspecific differences. While low P generally reduced biomass, several genotypes, particularly S. stenotomum accessions, showed enhanced root growth and greater root length per unit shoot biomass. Wild accessions (GLKS 38153, GLKS 38159, GLKS 38161, and GLKS 38163; S. chacoense), maintained biomass through efficient internal P use, whereas others displayed high P uptake with limited growth conversion. GLKS 38159 demonstrated remarkable P efficiency, achieving high biomass with lower P uptake. Cultivated varieties, including Ikar, Tiger, Tarzan, Borka, and Fransen, displayed diverse adaptive strategies, including longer roots and sustained biomass. These findings underscore the resilience of wild potatoes to nutrient stress and provide valuable insights for breeders targeting improved P use efficiency in potato varieties. Full article

Insufficient precipitation and low temperatures can restrict grain yield but not necessarily vegetative growth in cold–arid regions. This indicates that forage production may be more suitable than grain cultivation in these environments while also meeting the increasing demand for livestock products. In this study, we compared the effects of cultivating forage maize (Zea mays L.) and forage oat (Avena sativa L.) with those of traditional grain crops, such as potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), in terms of aboveground biomass, crude protein yield, and water use efficiency (WUE). Across the four-year study, the results showed that aboveground biomass increased by 26–125% with oat (9.10 t ha⁻¹) and maize (13.7 t ha⁻¹) cultivation compared to potato (7.23 t ha⁻¹) or wheat (6.10 t ha⁻¹). Maize and potato exhibited greater biomass stability due to longer growing seasons and better synchronization with peak precipitation. In contrast, wheat and oat exhibited higher biomass variability, reflecting their susceptibility to early spring drought. Among the four crops analyzed, maize achieved the highest crude protein yield (1068 kg ha⁻¹) and WUE (31.9 kg biomass ha⁻¹ mm⁻¹), primarily due to its superior biomass production rather than its protein concentration or elevated soil water consumption. Therefore, cultivating forage crops with longer growth periods could effectively align water demand with seasonal precipitation, thereby improving biomass accumulation and WUE in hydrothermally limited regions. Full article

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the third most important food crop worldwide and a cornerstone of food security across the Andean region. However, its production is increasingly threatened by the potato psyllid Bactericera cockerelli (Šulc), the vector of Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum, the causal agent of the purple-top complex associated with zebra chip disease, which severely reduces both tuber yield and quality. This study was conducted from September 2024 to February 2025 in the province of Huancabamba, Peru, to evaluate the efficacy of biological and chemical control agents against B. cockerelli under field conditions. A randomized complete block design was implemented with five treatments and four replicates, totaling 20 experimental units, each consisting of 20 potato plants (S. tuberosum L.), of which 10 plants were evaluated. Treatments included an untreated control (T0), a chemical control (thiamethoxam + lambda-cyhalothrin, abamectin, and imidacloprid) (T1), and three biological control agents: Beauveria bassiana CCB LE-265 (>1.5 × 10¹⁰ conidia g⁻¹) (T2), Paecilomyces lilacinus strain 251 (1.0 × 10¹⁰ conidia g⁻¹) (T3), and Metarhizium anisopliae (1.0 × 10¹⁰ conidia g⁻¹) (T4). Foliar applications targeted eggs, nymphs, and adults of the psyllid. Results indicated that B. cockerelli mortality across developmental stages was lower under biological treatments compared with T1, which achieved the lowest probability of purple-top symptom expression (46%) and a zebra chip incidence of 60.60%. Among the biological agents, M. anisopliae (T4) reduced incidence to 56.60%, while P. lilacinus (T3) demonstrated consistent suppression of nymphal populations. In terms of yield, T1 achieved the highest tuber weight (198.86 g plant⁻¹) and number of tubers (7.74 plant⁻¹), followed by T3 (5.08) and T4 (4.24). Nevertheless, all treatments exhibited low yields and small tuber sizes, likely due to unfavorable environmental conditions and the presence of the invasive pest. Overall, chemical control was more effective than biological agents; however, the latter showed considerable potential for integration into sustainable pest management programs. Importantly, vector suppression alone does not guarantee the absence of purple-top complex symptoms or zebra chip disease in potato tubers. Full article

Management zones (MZs) are a key precision agriculture strategy for managing spatial variability in crops, but conventional delineation methods are costly, time-consuming, and rely on specialized equipment. Previous studies in potato production have primarily relied on single-year NDVI or proximal soil sensor data analyses, limiting their ability to capture temporal stability and variability across multiple fields. This study addresses this gap by applying multi-year, multi-source NDVI composites to characterize spatial and temporal patterns of agricultural potential across 17 commercial potato fields at McCain’s Farm of the Future, Florenceville-Bristol, New Brunswick. A total of 230 NDVI images from Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 (2015–2023) were processed into composite metrics (mean, standard deviation, skewness) to delineate three agricultural potential (AP) MZs. Validation was conducted using 2023 potato tuber yield and soil physicochemical properties. The results showed statistically significant correlations between NDVI metrics and key soil nutrients (total carbon: |r| < 0.19; total nitrogen: |r| < 0.28), with tuber yield (|r| < 0.41). Spatial patterns of total carbon and nitrogen corresponded with delineated MZs, and tuber yield variability partially aligned with these zones. These findings demonstrate that multi-year NDVI composites provide a cost-effective and scalable approach for mapping agricultural potential, capturing both spatial and temporal variability, and supporting data-driven management decisions in potato production systems. Full article

Potato virus Y (PVY) is a major threat to global potato production, causing yield losses of nearly 90%. This emphasizes the urgent need to explore the genetic factors underlying resistance mechanisms. Developments in transcriptomics and plant genomes have shed significant light on the genetic underpinnings of PVY resistance. This review summarizes current knowledge on PVY biology and structure, its impacts, key hypersensitive resistance (HR) and extreme resistance (ER) genes and their associated molecular markers, genomic strategies for discovering resistance genes and improving resistance breeding, and challenges. Genetic resistance is a key strategy for controlling PVY, primarily through HR and ER, which are governed by specific genes: the Ny gene for HR and the Ry gene for ER. Our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying this resistance has increased significantly due to the advancement of high-throughput sequencing methods, including RNA and whole-genome sequencing. More than 10 PVY resistance genes have been identified in potato, including well-characterized ER genes such as Ry_sto, Ry-f_sto, Ry_adg, Ry_chc, and Ry(o)_phu, as well as HR genes such as Ny-1, Ny-2, and Ny-Smira, which are discussed in this review. Transcriptomic analyses have revealed the involvement of small RNAs and other regulatory molecules in modulating resistance responses. Transcriptomic studies have also identified 6071 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in potato cultivars infected with PVY, highlighting strong defense responses influenced by strain, cultivar, and environmental conditions. The identification of these resistance genes facilitates the development of PVY-resistant cultivars through marker-assisted selection and gene pyramiding, offering significant opportunities to enhance PVY management and promote sustainable potato production under the challenges posed by climate change. Full article