Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Ectopic expression of a tobacco invertase inhibitor homolog prevents cold-induced sweetening of potato tubers

Nature Biotechnology volume 17, pages 708–711 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

We have transformed potato with Nt-inhh cDNA, encoding a putative vacuolar homolog of a tobacco cell wall invertase inhibitor, under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter. In transgenic tubers, cold-induced hexose accumulation was reduced by up to 75%, without any effect on potato tuber yield. Processing quality of tubers was greatly improved without changing starch quantity or quality, an important prerequisite for the biotechnological use of Nt-inhh for potato transformation.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: (A) Alignment of the predicted Nt-inhh and Nt-inh1 protein sequences.
Figure 2: Reduction of soluble acid invertase activities in leaf extracts from potato Nt-inhh-transformants compared with nontransformed control plants.
Figure 3: RNA blot analysis confirms Nt-inhh expression in mature potato tubers from independent transgenic lines.
Figure 4: Nt-inhh expression improves processing quality for potato chip production by reducing cold-induced hexose formation in potato tubers without affecting potato tuber yield and starch concentrations (see Table 1).

References

  1. Müller-Thurgau, H. Über Zuckeranhäufung in Pflanzentheilen in Folge niederer Temperatur. Landwirtschaftliches Jahrbuch 11, 751–828 (1882).

  2. Burton, W.G. in The potato. 3rd edn (Longman Scientific & Technical, Harlow, Essex, England, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Pollock, C.J. & ap Rees, T. Activities of enzymes of sugar metabolism in cold stored tubers of Solanum tuberosum. Phytochemistry 14, 613–617 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Isherwood, F.A. Starch-sugar interconversion in Solanum tuberosum. Phytochemistry 12, 2579–2591 (1973).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Stark, D.M., Timmerman K.P., Barry, G.F., Preiss J. & Kishore G.M. Regulation of the amount of starch in plant tissues by ADP glucose pyrophosphorylase. Science 258, 287–292 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Stark, D.M., Barry, G.F. & Kishore G.M. Engineering plants for commercial products and applications. Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 792, 26–37 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Lorberth, R., Ritte, G., Willmitzer, L. & Kossmann, J. Inhibition of a starch-granule-bound protein leads to modified starch and repression of cold sweetening. Nat. Biotechnol. 16, 473–477 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Zrenner, R., Schüler, K. & Sonnewald, U. Soluble acid invertase determines the hexose-to-sucrose ratio in cold-stored potato tubers. Planta 198, 246–252 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Greiner, S., Krausgrill, S. & Rausch, T. N. tabacum mRNA for invertase inhibitor homolog. EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database, acc .Y12806.

  10. Greiner, S., Krausgrill, S. & Rausch, T. Cloning of a tobacco apoplasmic invertase inhibitor: Proof of function of the recombinant protein and expression analysis during plant development. Plant Physiol. 116, 733–742 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Krausgrill, S., Greiner, S., Köster, U., Vogel, R. & Rausch, T. In transformed tobacco cells the apoplasmic invertase inhibitor operates as a regulatory switch of cell wall invertase. Plant J. 13, 275–280 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. von Heijne G. A new method for predicting signal sequence cleavage sites Nucleic Acids Res. 14, 4683 (1986).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Zrenner, R. Klonierung und funktionelle analyse von genen kodierend für am saccharosestoffwechsel der kartoffel beteiligte proteine (PhD Thesis, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; 1993).

  14. Greiner, S., Weil, M., Krausgrill, S. & Rausch, T. A tobacco cDNA coding for cell-wall invertase. Plant Physiol. 108, 825–826 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Höfgen, R. & Willmitzer, L. Biochemical and genetic analysis of different patatin isoforms expressed in various organs of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). Plant Sci. 66, 221–230 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Bevan, M. Binary Agrobacterium vectors for plant transformation. Nucleic Acids Res 12, 8711–8721 (1984).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Rocha-Sosa, M. et al. Both development and metabolic signals activate the promoter of a class I patatin gene. EMBO J. 8, 23–29 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Herbers, K., Prat, S. & Willmitzer, L. Functional analysis of a leucine aminopeptidase from Solanum tuberosum L. Planta 194, 230–240 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Stitt, M., Lilley, R.M.C., Gerhard, R. & Heldt, H.W. Metabolic levels in specific cells and subcellular compartment of plant leaves. Methods Enzymol. 174, 518–552 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Weil, M. & Rausch, T. Cell wall invertase in tobacco crown gall cells. Plant Physiol. 94, 1575–1581 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to T.R. (SFB 199, TP C3). The authors are grateful to Anita Winger for excellent technical assistance. We would also like to thank Andrea Knospe and Sibylle Freist for the tissue culture work, and Katja Lauer for the determination of VI activities in ConA-fractions from tobacco Nt-inhh transformants.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Botanisches Institut, INF 360, D-69120-Heidelberg, Germany

    Steffen Greiner & Thomas Rausch

  2. IPK Gatersleben, Corrensstraβe 3, D-06466-Gatersleben, Germany

    Uwe Sonnewald & Karin Herbers

Authors
  1. Steffen Greiner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas Rausch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Uwe Sonnewald
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Karin Herbers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Rausch.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Greiner, S., Rausch, T., Sonnewald, U. et al. Ectopic expression of a tobacco invertase inhibitor homolog prevents cold-induced sweetening of potato tubers. Nat Biotechnol 17, 708–711 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/10924

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/10924

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing