Compendium of Crop Genome Designing for Nutraceuticals

Potato is a perfect target for bio-fortification strategies. This crop has contributed for thousand years to human diet, and it energy, potato tubers contain compounds with nutraceutical properties including minerals, vitamins, proteins, and specialized metabolites. Therefore, we outlined this chapter devoting a significant space to both genomic and biotechnology studies addressed, respectively, to identify genomic sequence and genes influencing the amount nutraceutical molecules accumulated and to increment/introduce existing nutraceutical molecules or novel nutrients in the tuber. Before entering in the core of the chapter, we made an extensive introduction to the nutraceutical molecules which have been investigated in potato tubers. Then, we focused on innovative approaches, including gene editing and organelle transformation, with great potential for the nutraceutical bio-fortification of the potato. The leitmotiv of the chapter is the biodiversity of potato germplasm (including wild tuber-bearing species), which is a key aspect in potato tuber bio-fortification. The critical review of the literature suggested us to conclude pointing out the current scientific challenges for fully exploiting potato as a “vibrant feedstock for nutraceuticals.”s tubers still represent a staple food fundamental for worldwide food security. Besides being an important source of