Bioscience Methods 2025, Vol.16, No.1, 1-10 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/bm 2 approaches, including gene overexpression and genetic transformation, for developing stress-resistant sweet potato varieties, aiming to provide insights to guide future research and breeding programs to improve sweet potato’s resilience to abiotic stress. 2 Types of Abiotic Stresses Affecting Sweet Potato Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a vital crop globally, but its productivity is significantly affected by various abiotic stresses. These stresses include drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, and heavy metal toxicity. Understanding the mechanisms of tolerance to these stresses is crucial for developing resilient sweet potato cultivars. 2.1 Drought stress Drought stress is one of the most critical factors limiting sweet potato yield. Drought conditions lead to reduced photosynthetic activity, oxidative stress, and impaired growth (Sapakhova et al., 2023). Studies have shown that the overexpression of certain genes, such as IbSnRK1, enhances drought tolerance by activating the reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging system and controlling stomatal closure via the abscisic acid (ABA) signaling pathway (Ren et al., 2020). Additionally, the IbBBX24-IbTOE3-IbPRX17 module has been identified to improve drought tolerance by scavenging ROS, thereby reducing oxidative damage (Figure 1) (Zhang et al., 2021). Transcriptomic analyses have revealed that drought-tolerant cultivars regulate flavonoid and carbohydrate biosynthesis/metabolism to mitigate drought stress (Liu et al., 2023). Figure 1 Proposed working model of the IbBBX24-IbTOE3-IbPRX17 regulatory module in abiotic stress responses. IbBBX24, IbTOE3 and IbPRX17 expression is induced by NaCl, polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG6000), and H2O2 treatments. IbBBX24 and IbTOE3 bindseparatelytotheGT-1motifat-213 bpandtheTTTGTTmotifat-141 bpinthe IbPRX17 promoter and activate IbPRX17 transcription. Interaction between IbBBX24 and IbTOE3 enhances the ability of IbBBX24 to activate IbPRX17 transcription bybindingtheGT-1motifat-213 bpofitspromoter.Inaddition,overexpressionofIbBBX24, IbTOE3 and IbPRX17 promotes reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging under abiotic stress conditions, leading to abiotic stress tolerance. Brown circle, IbBBX24; blue circle, IbTOE3; green circles, IbPRX17; red triangles, activated transcription (Adopted from Zhang et al., 2021) 2.2 Salinity stress Salinity stress adversely affects sweet potato by causing ionic imbalance and osmotic stress, leading to reduced growth and yield. The overexpression of genes such as IbMIPS1 and IbC3H18 has been shown to enhance salt tolerance by up-regulating stress-responsive genes involved in ROS scavenging, ABA signaling, and ion transport pathways (Zhai et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2019). Furthermore, the introduction of the AtNHX1 gene, which
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