Impact of heat stress on potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.): present scenario and future opportunities

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) ranked third most important crop and ranked first among the non-cereal crops. Further, its demand is increasing because of its high-industrial value and population blast. However, Earth’s temperature is increasing continuously due to global warming, which has undesirable impact on potato production. The ideal night temperature for tuber formation is ~17°C and night temperature beyond 22°C reduces the tuber yield drastically. The previous studies reported different genes involved in the regulation of transcriptional factors, sugar transport, photosynthesis, hormonal activity and expressed under high temperatures. However, no detailed report is available which provide insight to the complete scenario of the role of these genes in tuberisation. Based upon the present day scenario, here we reviewed the effects of increasing global temperature on potato crop, tuber yield and quality. The review described how various molecular pathways involved in potato tuberisation gets effected by heat stress and offer various potential candidate genes that might play important roles in the development of thermo-tolerant potato varieties. We also discussed the pivotal role of wild species in breeding programmes, capabilities of biotechnological tools, agronomic practices and remote sensing in sustainable potato production under changing climate.