Engineering Properties of Sweet Potato Starch for Industrial Applications by Biotechnological Techniques including Genome Editing

Abstract

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is one of the largest food crops in the world. Due to its abundance of starch, sweet potato is a valuable ingredient in food derivatives, dietary supplements, and industrial raw materials. In addition, due to its ability to adapt to a wide range of harsh climate and soil conditions, sweet potato is a crop that copes well with the environmental stresses caused by climate change. However, due to the complexity of the sweet potato genome and the long breeding cycle, our ability to modify sweet potato starch is limited. In this review, we cover the recent development in sweet potato breeding, understanding of starch properties, and the progress in sweet potato genomics. We describe the applicational values of sweet potato starch in food, industrial products, and biofuel, in addition to the effects of starch properties in different industrial applications. We also explore the possibility of manipulating starch properties through biotechnological means, such as the CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing. The ability to target the genome with precision provides new opportunities for reducing breeding time, increasing yield, and optimizing the starch properties of sweet potatoes.

Exploring and exploiting genetics and genomics for sweetpotato improvement: Status and perspectives

“…CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology, which allows precisely targeted genome modifications, has been used successfully to edit two starch biosynthetic pathway genes ( GBSSI and SBEII ) in sweetpotato. In GBSSI knockout plants, the amylose content was reduced, and in SBEII knockout plants, the amylose content was increased ( Wang et al., 2019 ; Lyu et al., 2021 ).…”

Valorization of Starch to Biobased Materials: A Review

“…In a closed-loop system for starch, genetic modification, seed creation, growth, and delivery to the processing mill are all perfectly controlled. Genome editing [ 102 ] and genetic and environmental variation [ 103 ] have been reported on the genetic modification of starch. According to our knowledge, there are just a few recently published pieces of literature on the experimental genetic modification of starch.…”

Genome-Wide Characterization of the PIFs Family in Sweet Potato and Functional Identification of IbPIF3.1 under Drought and Fusarium Wilt Stresses

“…However, the study of PIF genes in sweet potato under stress has not been reported. Due to the complicated and highly heterozygous genetic background of sweet potato, the improvement of its agronomic traits is limited [ 51 ]. With the continuous advancement of sequencing technology, the genome assembly of hexaploid sweet potato Taizhong 6 [ 52 ], and two diploid species, Ipomoea triloba NCNSP0323 (2n = 2x = 30) and Ipomoea trifida NCNSP0306 (2n = 2x = 30) have recently been completed [ 53 ], making it possible to systematically investigate important gene families in sweet potato.…”