REGULATION OF POTATO WOUND SUBERIN BIOSYNTHESIS

Wound suberization is critical for preventing major post-harvest losses experienced by the potato industry. In spite of wound suberin'simportance for the potato industry, the molecular signaling events that regulate wound suberin deposition remain unclear. This hold particularly true for transcriptional regulation by transcription factors. Similarly, it is known that suberin is important for defense against devastating post-harvest pathogens such as soft rots yet a specific role for defense-related signaling in modulating suberin accumulation remains essentially uknown.The overarching goal of the project is to provide a better understanding of the transcriptional regulation ofwound suberizationprocesses by transcription factors and pathogen defense-related signaling.Our research will be accomplished through the following Specific Aims:1. Identification and characterization of transcription factors that regulate wound suberin biosynthesis.This will be accomplished through characterization of CRISPR-Cas9 gene-edited potato lines already established by the PDs.2. Determine the role of defense-related signaling in regulating wound suberin biosynthesis.This will be accomplished through studying jasmonic acid-related signaling and soft rot associated defense responses.