CRISPR/Cas9 Technology Applications in Potato: A Review

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), a member of family Solanaceae is the third largest food crop in the world after wheat and rice. It is mainly used as a fresh food or raw material for foodprocessing (e.g., Chips and French fries) and specific industries (e.g., starch and ethanol). Inaddition to high carbohydrate and low fat, the potato tuber has balanced nutritional value withvitamins and minerals, making this crop ideal for the human diet and important for foodsecurity. Potato has wide distribution and adaptability to various environmental and climaticconditions but it is sensitive to various environmental stresses like water stress (drought andflooding), extreme temperature (low and high), and ion toxicity (salinity and heavy metal) etc. The cultivated potato are vegetatively propagated and are predominantly autotetraploids (2n =4x = 48) i.e.diploid to hexaploid. In 2011, the first potato reference genome and transcriptomewere published by the Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium (PGSC) using a whole-genomeshotgun (WGS) approach. Earlier, conventional breeding, bi-parental linkage mapping, andMarker Assisted Selection (MAS) have been successfully demonstrated in potato. The potatogenome sequencing and resequencing allow discovery of genes, markers and other regulatoryelements to provide better understanding of the crop. There is an immense potential of genome editing for rapid breeding of climate resilient varieties resistant/tolerant to biotic and abioticstresses. Nonetheless, the availability of an efficient CRISPR/Cas9 system, target geneselection, plant transformation, and off target mutants would be some challenges in tetraploid crop.