Improvement of biomass accumulation of potato plants by transformation of cyanobacterial photorespiratory glycolate catabolism pathway genes

Transgenic potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Desiree) plants expressing components of a novel cyanobacterial photorespiratory glycolate catabolism pathway were developed. Transgenic plant expressing glcD1 (glycolate dehydrogenase I) gene was referred to as synGDH and transgenic plants expressing gcl (glyoxylate carboligase) and tsr (tartronic semialdehyde reductase) genes simultaneously were designated as synGT. Both synGDH and synGT plants showed stable gene transformation, integration and expression. Enhanced glyoxylate contents in synGDH plants were detected as compared to synGT and non-transgenic (NT) plants. Phenotypic evaluation revealed that synGDH plants accumulated 11 % higher dry weight, while, tuber weight was 38 and 16 % higher than NT and synGT, respectively. Upon challenging the plants in high temperature and high light conditions synGDH plants maintained higher Fv/Fm and showed less bleaching of chlorophyll as compared to synGT and NT plants. These results indicate that genetic transformation of complete pathway in one plant holds promising outcomes in terms of biomass accumulation to meet future needs for food and energy.