Genetius

The study generated β‑hydroxypalmitate methyl ester hydrolase (βHPMEH) transgenic potato (cv. Desiree) lines and evaluated their resistance to bacterial wilt caused by two virulent Ralstonia solanacearum strains under controlled conditions. Disease severity was assessed via wilt incidence, latent infection, and area under the disease progress curve, and resistance levels correlated positively with βhpmeh expression measured by qRT‑PCR.

The study reveals that the TIR-NLR receptor Rysto confers extreme resistance (ER) to potato virus Y by maintaining a pre‑activated immune state, involving transcriptional priming and redistribution of the receptor with chaperones. Upon infection, Rysto shifts from a Hsp70‑CPIP complex to an oligomeric resistosome that relocalizes to the plasma membrane‑cell wall interface, distinguishing ER from the typical hypersensitive response.

The study characterizes tuber yield and starch attributes of two diploid Solanum tuberosum lines (B26, B100) and their F1 hybrids, comparing them to a tetraploid cultivar. While overall starch content was similar across genotypes, B26 exhibited higher resistant starch and elongated granules, and pruning fruit in B100 increased tuber yield without affecting starch traits. These findings highlight phenotypic diversity in diploid breeding material for investigating genetic control of metabolic and quality traits.

CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of the vacuolar invertase gene (StVInv) in potato enhanced drought resilience, with mutants maintaining higher stomatal conductance, transpiration, and photosynthetic efficiency, leading to improved agronomic water-use efficiency and biomass under water limitation. Metabolomic profiling showed accumulation of galactinol and raffinose, while ABA levels were reduced, indicating altered osmoprotective and hormonal responses that support sustained growth during drought.

The study demonstrates that suppressing miR166 in potato via target mimicry leads to pleiotropic developmental changes, including altered vascular patterning, leaf curvature, and root development, as well as elongated, pigmented tubers with reduced yield. Transcriptomic, hormonal, and anthocyanin analyses reveal that miR166 regulates hormone-related genes, anthocyanin biosynthesis, and key transporters during the stolon-to-tuber transition, highlighting a conserved role for the miR166‑HD‑ZIP III module in tuber development.

The study developed a PCR marker targeting the 5'-end extension of the broad-spectrum resistance gene Rpi-vnt1.1 and used it to identify a potato breeding line (C1848) carrying a functional allele. Inoculation assays confirmed strong resistance to Phytophthora infestans, and RNAi silencing as well as heterologous expression in Nicotiana benthamiana demonstrated that resistance is specifically mediated by the Rpi-vnt1.1 allele, providing a low‑cost tool for marker‑assisted breeding.

The authors developed and validated a high‑density Axiom SNP array for potato (Solanum tuberosum) by sequencing 108 diverse clones and integrating ~929 k variants with existing markers, ultimately refining a set of 206 k robust markers for high‑throughput genotyping. The array demonstrated >99.8% reproducibility, enabled detailed population structure analysis, and successfully identified variants associated with polyphenol oxidase activity, achieving genomic prediction accuracies of 0.72‑0.86, thereby supporting genomic‑assisted breeding in potato.

The study generated 97 publicly available dihaploid potato clones derived from tetraploid commercial varieties and provided short‑read resequencing for all and PacBio HiFi assemblies for 20, capturing most alleles of major US market classes. Analysis of the maturity locus StCDF1 revealed extensive allelic diversity and heterozygosity, while genome‑wide assessment showed high structural variation and long linkage blocks despite low recombination rates. These resources enable genomic‑informed diploid breeding and broader potato genomic investigations.

The study tackles the complex tetrasomic genetics of potato by focusing on the H1 resistance locus, which has protected against Globodera rostochiensis for decades. Using a dihaploid of the cultivar Athlete and Oxford Nanopore long‑read sequencing combined with RenSeq‑based association genetics, the researchers generated a phased haplotype and fully reconstructed the H1 interval, pinpointing recombination boundaries at both ends of the locus.

The study generated a comprehensive gene expression atlas from 34 tissues and stress treatments of the tetraploid potato cultivar Atlantic, leveraging a haplotype‑phased genome to analyze 129,218 genes. Coexpression modules were constructed to link transcriptional networks with tuber initiation, development, and abiotic/biotic stress responses, and pan‑genomic structural variation was integrated to pinpoint key genes for tuberization and stress resilience.