Sweet potato Omics and Biotechnology in China

Sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., is an important food and industrial material crop throughout the world. It is also an alternative source of bio-energy as a raw material for fuel production. China is the biggest sweet potato producer in the world. Biotechnology offers great potential for improving disease, pest and stress resistance and nutritional quality of sweet potato. In the past decades, great progress in sweet potato omics and biotechnology has been made in China. An efficient system of embryogenic suspension cultures has been developed for a wide range of sweet potato genotypes. Somatic hybridization has been applied to overcome cross-incompatibility between sweet potato and its relatives, and has generated useful interspecific somatic hybrids. Novel mutants have been obtained by cell induced mutation and in vitro selection. Several genes related to stem nematode resistance, salt tolerance, carotenoid biosynthesis, and anthocyanin biosynthesis have been cloned. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation has been standardized for important cultivars, and has been used to produce transgenic plants resistant to diseases, stresses and herbicides. Molecular markers linked to a stem nematode resistance gene have been developed. This paper summarizes advances made so far in sweet potato omics and biotechnology in China and suggests future directions for research in omics and biotechnology of this crop in China.