Postharvest dormancy-related changes of endogenous hormones in relation to different dormancy-breaking methods of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tubers

Muhammad Wasim Haider; Muhammad Nafees; Ishtiaq Ahmad; Baber Ali; Maryam; Rashid Iqbal; Dan C Vodnar; Romina Alina Marc; Muhammad Kamran; Muhammad Hamzah Saleem; Abdullah Ahmed Al-Ghamdi; Fahad M Al-Hemaid; Mohamed S Elshikh

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.945256

Postharvest dormancy-related changes of endogenous hormones in relation to different dormancy-breaking methods of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tubers

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Aug 10:13:945256. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.945256. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
² Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
³ Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Government Sadiq College Women University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
⁵ Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Institute of Life Sciences, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁶ Food Engineering Department, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁷ School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
⁸ College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
⁹ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Development of an efficient and eco-friendly technique to break tuber dormancy in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is highly demanded due to the production of two or more crops annually. Several physiological and hormonal changes have been found to be related to the breaking of tuber dormancy; however, their consistency with genotypes and different protocols have not been well clarified. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of four dormancy-breaking methods, that is, plant growth regulator (PGR) dipping in 30, 60, or 90 mgL^-1 benzyl amino purine (BAP) and 10, 20, or 30 mgL^-1 gibberellic acids (GA3) alone and in the combination of optimized concentrations; electric current application at 20, 40, 60, or 80 Vs; cold pre-treatment at 2, 4, or 6 °C; irradiation at 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, or 3.5 kGy. In addition, changes in endogenous levels of abscisic acid (ABA), zeatin (ZT), and gibberellin A₁ (GA₁) in six potato genotypes after subjecting to these methods were investigated. Overall, the highest effective method for dormancy duration was the PGR application which shortened the duration by 18 days, followed by electric current (13 days), cold pre-treatment (9 days), and then irradiation (7 days). The solution of 60 mgL^-1 BAP significantly reduced the dormancy duration in all genotypes but did not have a significant effect on the sprout length. While 20 mgL^-1 GA₃ produced maximum sprout length with a non-significant effect on dormancy duration. The genotype × PGR interaction for dormancy duration was more pronounced in short- and medium-term dormancy genotypes than in long-term dormancy genotypes. The genotypes displayed a significant positive correlation between dormancy duration and ABA levels but exhibited a negative correlation between dormancy duration and ZT as well as GA₁ levels. From the first to the third week of storage, ABA was decreased in tubers while, however, ZT and GA₁ were increased. The obtained results could be useful for the postharvest storage of potato tuber and the related field of physiological investigation in future.

Keywords: Solanum tuberosum L.; cold-treatment; dormancy; electric current; g-radiation; plant growth regulators; sprouting; zeatin.