Project Report on Genome-wide analysis of Lycopene Epsilon Cyclase gene and associated biochemical studies in Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) holds the status of the world's most important non- grain food crop and ranks third in terms of total production after rice and wheat. Temperature is the most important factor affecting the growth, development and tuberization in potato. It influences the metabolic and photosynthetic rates thus, affecting the dry matter accumulation. A fundamental process in understanding the plant growth and development is biosynthesis of carotenoids. Lycopene protects plants against photosensitization by absorbing light during photosynthesis. The colours of flowers and fruits are due to both the decrease in chlorophyll content as they mature and the lycopene and other carotenoids in their contents. The present study was canied out is genome-wide analysis of LcyE genes in potato (In Silica analysis). One Lycopene Epsilon Cyclase gene was predicted using PLAZA 5.0 (PGSC0003DMG40003 1441) with number of introns to be 2. The gene size was 4550. The acquired gene was selected for cloning. Sucrose estimation was done in four potato varieties namely Kufri Surya, Kufri Pukhraj, Kufri Chandramukhi and Kufri Jyoti. Kufri Pukhraj was found to have highest sucrose concentration while Kufri Surya has the lowest sucrose concentration as compared to the other two varieties which was found to be statistically significant. In protein estimation Kufri Surya has maxiir.um protein content followed by Kufri Jyoti, Kufri Chandramukhi and Kufri Puk.hraj. Chlorophyll content was highest in Kufri Surya while Kufri Pukhraj has the lowest chlorophyll content as compared to Kufri Chandramukhi and Kufri Jyoti. SDS-PAGE was also done to estimate the purity of protein samples. Further work on this gene in potato would be of great value in establishing this gene as a candidate for developing plant growth and response to abiotic stress in potato cultivars.