A Systems Biology Approach to Understanding Anthocyanin Biosynthesis and Regulation in Potato

Anthocyanins, the causal agents of purple and red pigmentation, are becoming increasingly popular in food crops due to their novel appearance and high antioxidant content. Cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum, is a highly heterozygous tuber bearing tetraploid, providing a unique system to understand anthocyanin biosynthesis and regulation. The genomics era has led to increasing amounts of data, not only to study foundational biological questions, but also to aid in crop improvement. In 2011, the genome sequence of potato was released, ushering in a new era in potato research. To better understand anthocyanin biosynthesis in potato, a multi-disciplinary systems approach integrating genetic, gene expression, and metabolite data is being used. In this study, we are utilizing 26 tetraploid potato lines categorized based on tuber pigmentation phenotype (purple skin and flesh, purple skin with yellow flesh, red skin and flesh, red skin with white flesh, and a control with no skin or flesh pigmentation) to understand gene regulation and pathway structure of anthocyanin genes, which will also provide a guideline and pipeline for researching heterozygous polyploid species.