The use of carbohydrate metabolism genes for potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) improvement (review)

Potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the most important crop species in the world. Its nutritional and industrial qualities depend on starch content in tubers. Starch consists of linear (amylose) and branched (amylopectin) glucose polymers. Three main goals of modern potato breeding programs include increment of tuber starch yield, development of potato cultivars with improved amylose or amylopectin content and prevention of cold-induced sweetening. Nowadays some molecular and biotechnological approaches to vary plant characteristics have been developed. Among them the most popular are marker-assisted selection, transgenic technologies, genome editing. But, regardless of the chosen approach, the fundamental stage of successful work is the proper choice of the target gene, which in turn requires detailed understanding of the metabolic pathways for the synthesis and degradation of carbohydrates in plant tissues. Starch metabolism includes rather big number of reactions and requires synergetic work of a great number of enzymes...