Heat-Resilient Potatoes Show 30% Yield Increase

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a genetically engineered potato that shows increased resilience to extreme heat, producing 30% more tuber mass under heatwave conditions. This innovation offers potential benefits for food security in regions where rising global temperatures have significantly disrupted agricultural yields. The work was led by Katherine Meacham-Hensold as part of the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) project, an international initiative focused on improving crop photosynthesis to enhance food production. According to Meacham-Hensold, these advancements are essential to meet growing food demands in areas most affected by climate change.

The breakthrough involves addressing the challenges of photorespiration, a process that can reduce crop yields by up to 40% by diverting energy away from growth to metabolize toxic byproducts. This issue becomes more pronounced in high temperatures when the Rubisco enzyme reacts more frequently with oxygen instead of carbon dioxide, further straining the plant’s energy resources. To counter this, researchers introduced two genes—glycolate dehydrogenase and malate synthase—into the potato plant’s photosynthetic pathway. These modifications allowed the plant to metabolize harmful byproducts directly within the chloroplasts, conserving energy and improving growth efficiency.

Field trials revealed significant results during the 2022 growing season, which experienced multiple heatwaves with temperatures exceeding 95°F (35°C) and peaking above 100°F (38°C). Despite these extreme conditions, the modified potatoes produced substantially larger yields than their non-engineered counterparts, highlighting their enhanced thermotolerance and improved photosynthetic efficiency. The research, recently published in Global Change Biology, also confirmed that these genetic modifications did not affect the potato’s nutritional quality, ensuring that the gains in yield do not compromise food value.

While these findings are promising, researchers emphasize the need for further multi-location field trials to evaluate the performance of the engineered potatoes in diverse environments. Success with potatoes could pave the way for similar innovations in other root crops such as cassava, a critical food source in Sub-Saharan Africa, where rising temperatures are expected to have significant impacts.