Vitamin E (α‐tocopherol) is a lipid‐soluble essential vitamin recognized for improvement in degenerative health conditions, abating cancer risk, and coronary heart diseases in humans. While in plants, it acts as a free radical scavenger that protects cells against oxidative and photooxidative damages. The daily consumption of potato makes it a key target for biofortification with vitamins for eliminating vitamin deficiency in large populations. Vitamin E biosynthetic pathway genes have been overexpressed in plants via genetic engineering to enhance the α‐tocopherol content. Major genes involved in the vitamin E biosynthesis in plants viz. the homogentisate‐phytyltransferase (At‐HPT) and γ‐tocopherol‐methyltransferase (At‐γ‐TMT), isolated from Arabidopsis were constitutively overexpressed in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). The molecular analyses of independent transgenic lines revealed a stable integration of both the genes in the plant genome. The transgenic potato exhibited significantly improved vitamin E contents up to 173–258% in comparison to the untransformed control plants. Transgenic tissues also exhibited increased cellular antioxidant enzymes, proline, osmolyte, and glutathione content that are directly correlated with the ability of the plant to withstand abiotic stresses imposed by salt (NaCl) and heavy metal (CdCl2). Therefore, the current strategy of increasing the vitamin E content in potato with enhanced tolerance to abiotic stresses might greatly aid efforts to engineer crops for human health benefits and greater yield under adverse environmental conditions.
The tuberization phenomenon in potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a highly synchronized morphophysiological process occurring on the underground stolons under the influence of various intrinsic and extrinsic factors. This involves the participation of the phytochrome sensory system, transport of sucrose from source to stolon, and several regulatory pathways including tuber-inducing hormone biosynthetic lipoxygenase (StLOX1) gene and major calcium-mediated signaling pathway genes (StCDPK and StCaM1). This study was aimed to explore the impacts of distinctive qualities of the light-emitting diode (LED) light with a specific wavelength on in vitro tuberization of potato. Single nodal segments of potato ‘Kufri Jyoti’ were incubated in vitro on the growth medium at a temperature of 22 ± 2 °C and exposed to various combinations of red (R) and blue (B) LED light. The results showed that the combination of 30% red + 70% blue LED light (R30B70) significantly shortened the tuber induction period, increased the number of tubers, and their yield compared with these parameters in the tissues exposed to the white light (W100). The induction of the in vitro tuberization correlated with the enhanced expression of the major tuberizing pathway genes, including the lipoxygenase (StLOX1), calmodulin (CaM1), and calcium-dependent protein kinase (StCDPK). The current study indicated that the combination of red and blue LED lights at R30B70 is the best spectrum for effective in vitro tuberization of potatoes.
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