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Sweet Potato

Introduction

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. It is an herbaceous perennial vine that has white and purple sympetalous flowers, large nutritious storage roots and alternate heart-shaped or palmately lobed leaves. Despite its popular name, the sweet potato is only very distantly related to the potato (Solanum tuberosum). It is a storage root, not a tuber or thickened stem like the potato, and belongs to the morning-glory family and not the nightshade family. Despite a physical similarity, yams are not related to the sweet potato either.

Ipomoea batatas is native to the tropical regions of the Americas. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of Convolvulaceae, I. batatas is the only crop plant of major importance. Some others are used locally (e.g. I. aquatica (kangkong)), but many are poisonous. The genus Ipomoea also includes several garden flowers called morning glories. Some cultivars of Ipomoea batatas are also grown as ornamental plants

Sweet potato facts & figures

Biological Information

Factor

Sweetpotato

Plant Family

Convolvulaceae

Chromosomes

2n = 90

Plant sex

Monoecious

Origin

Central and South America

Edible part

Root

Appearance

Smooth, thin skin

Shape

Blocky shape with tapered ends

Mouth feel

Moist

Taste

Sweet

Beta carotene

High

Propagation

Stem and root cuttings; also adventitious roots called ‘slips’

Cultivated forms of sweet potato have 2n = 6x = 90 chromosomes. Although some varieties of sweet potato are also called yam in parts of the United States and Canada, sweet potato is not part of the family Dioscoreaceae but belongs in the unrelated morning glory family Convolvulaceae.

Sweet potatoes are mostly propagated by stem or root cuttings or by adventitious roots called "slips" that grow out from the tuberous roots during storage. True seeds are used for breeding only. Because they are sown by vine cuttings rather than seeds, sweet potatoes are relatively easy to plant. The rapidly growing vines shade out weeds, limiting the weeding that is needed. They grow well in many farming conditions and have few natural enemies; pesticides are rarely needed.

Genomic Resources for Sweet Potato

Sweet potato genome research currently lags far behind all the other top-eight most important food and vegetable crops in the world. This is mostly due to the complexity inherent in its hexaploid genome, and the resulting lack of genomic and genetic resources and tools; the polyploidy and the high degree of heterozygosity of the sweetpotato genome make it infeasible for whole genome sequencing.This has hampered development of more effective precision crop improvement solutions such as the Marker-Assisted-Breeding (MAB) for sweet potato.

As an alternative, the Genomic Tools for Sweetpotato (GT4SP) Improvement Project is developing high-quality genome sequences of diploid and highly homozygous accessions of Ipomea trifida and Ipomea triloba, the two closest wild relatives and putative wild ancestors of the cultivated sweet potato. The resulting two high-quality draft genomes will serve as references for cultivated sweet potato and as the foundation for next generation breeding technologies for sweet potato improvement.

Published genomic resources for sweet potato include the following:

  1. A Genetic Linkage Map of Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Based on AFLP Markers
  2. A sweetpotato gene index established by de novo assembly of pyrosequencing and Sanger sequences and mining for gene-based microsatellite markers
  3. An AFLP-based Genetic Linkage Map of Ipomoea trifida (H.B.K.) G. Don., a Diploid Relative of Sweetpotato, I. batatas (L.) Lam.
  4. Analyses of the Complete Genome and Gene Expression of Chloroplast of Sweet Potato [Ipomoea batata]
  5. Construction of a linkage map based on retrotransposon insertion polymorphisms in sweetpotato via high-throughput sequencing
  6. Carotenoids gene markers for sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam): applications in genetic mapping, diversity evaluation and cross-species transference
  7. De Novo Transcriptome Sequencing of the Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato and Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes Related to Carotenoid Biosynthesis
  8. Development and Identification of SSR Markers Associated with Starch Properties and β-Carotene Content in the Storage Root of Sweet Potato
  9. Distributions, ex situ conservation priorities, and genetic resource potential of crop wild relatives of sweetpotato
  10. Resistance to Sweetpotato Chlorotic Stunt Virus and Sweetpotato Feathery Mottle Virus is Mediated by Two Separate Recessive Genes in Sweetpotato
  11. Survey of genome sequences in a wild sweet potato, Ipomoea trifida (H. B. K.) G. Don
  12. The genome of cultivated sweet potato contains Agrobacterium T-DNAs with expressed genes - An example of a naturally transgenic food crop

Phenotyping

  • Link to crop ontology, with downloadable trait dictionary

Other Resources

  • Sweet Potato Knowledge Portal
  • Centro Internacional de la Papa
  • University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
  • Purdue University
  • Wikipedia article on Sweet Potato
  • Sweet Potato Gene Index
  • Genomic Tools for Sweetpotato (GT4SP) Improvement Project

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