GENOME-WIDE DISTRIBUTION ANDCHARACTERIZATION OF HIGH TEMPERATURESHOCK TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR GENES FORDROUGHT AND HIGH TEMPERATURE STRESS INSOLANUM TUBEROSUM L.
27 / 19
Keywords:
chromosome location, phylogenetic, expression analysis, potato genome, expression analysisAbstract
Abiotic stresses, mainly drought and high temperature affect potato production
greatly. Molecular mechanisms associated with high temperature and drought stresses are yet to be
deciphered fully. In many crops "high temperature shock transcription factors" (hsf) play important
role in providing tolerance to plants under these stresses however, the role of hsf family in potato
(Solanum tuberosum) in relation to abiotic stress is not fully explored yet. We performed detailed
genome-wide analysis of hsf genes in potato. Fifteen hsf genes were identified in the potato genome
which were found to be scattered on all chromosomes except chromosomes 1, 3 and 5. The structural
analysis of predicted potato hsf genes indicated presence of only one intron in potato hsf genes.
The lengths of deduced hsf proteins were found to be ranging from 55 to 536 amino acids, having
molecular weights in the range of 12.20 kDa to 60.25 kDa with theoretical pI values from 4.71 to
9.58. The grand average of hydropathy (GRAVY) values was found to be negative for all the fifteen
potato hsfs, suggesting their hydrophilic nature. Of the fifteen hsf genes identified in the potato
genome, five were cloned and sequenced (partially) and their sequences were submitted to NCBI
GenBank and were provided NCBI accession numbers. In response to drought, higher expression of
all the five cloned genes was observed in drought tolerant cultivar- Kufri Jyoti (in leaf as well as
root tissues) as compared to that in drought susceptible cultivar- Kufri Pukhraj. In response to high
temperature stress, although the expression of most of the cloned hsf genes decreased in both high
temperature tolerant (Kufri Surya) as well as susceptible cultivar (Kufri Chandramukhi), however,
the decrease was comparatively more in case of K. Chandramukhi (high temperature susceptible
cultivar) as compared to that in Kufri Surya (high temperature tolerant cultivar). The study indicated
involvement of these hsf genes in imparting tolerance to drought and high temperature stress and
thus, can be utilized for developing more climate resilient potato cultivars.
Downloads
References
Akhtar M, Jaiswal A, Taj G, Jaiswal JP, Qureshi MI and
Singh NK. 2012. DREB1/CBF transcription factors:
their structure, function and role in abiotic stress
tolerance in plants. Journal of Genetics 91: 385–395.
Baniwal SK, Bharti K, Chan KY, Fauth M, Ganguli A,
Kotak S, Mishra SK, Nover L, Port M, Scharf KD,
Tripp J, Weber C, Zielinski D and von Koskull-
Döring P. 2004. High temperature stress response in
plants: a complex game with chaperones and more
than twenty high temperature stress transcription
factors. Journal of Biosciences 29: 471–487.
Dahal K, Li XQ, Tai H, Creelman A and Bizimungu B.
2019. Improving potato stress tolerance and tuber
yield under a climate change scenario—a current
overview. Frontiers in Plant Science 10: 563.
Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
2026. Area and production of horticulture crops
for 2025–26 (2nd Advance Estimates). Ministry of
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of
India. Published 12 June 2026.
Dutt S, Manjul AS, Raigond P, Singh B, Siddappa S,
Bhardwaj V, Kawar PG, Patil VU and Kardile HB.
2017. Key players associated with tuberization in
potato: potential candidates for genetic engineering.
Critical Reviews in Biotechnology 37: 942–957.
Devi K., Chauhan M, Raigond P, Kumar D, Lal, M K,
Jaiswal AK, Bandana, Kumar D, Luthra SK, Kumar
D and Singh B. 2023. Analysis of carotenoids
metabolism genes landscape in potato and cloning of
zeaxanthin epoxidase gene. Potato Journal. 50: 132-148.
FAOSTAT. 2026. Crops and livestock products. Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
Rome. Available at: (accessed 5 April 2026).
Gasteiger E., Hoogland C., Gattiker A., Duvaud S.,
Wilkins M.R., Appel R.D., Bairoch A.; Protein
Identification and Analysis Tools on the Expasy Server;
(In) John M. Walker (ed): The Proteomics Protocols
Handbook, Humana Press (2005). pp. 571-607
Gervais T, Creelman A, Li XQ, Bizimungu B, De Koeyer
D and Dahal K. 2021. Potato response to drought
stress: physiological and growth basis. Frontiers in
Plant Science 12: 698060.
Guo M, Liu JH, Lu JP, Zhai YF, Wang H, Gong ZH
and Lu MH. 2015. Genome-wide analysis of the
CaHsp20 gene family in pepper: comprehensive
sequence and expression profile analysis under
high temperature stress. Frontiers in Plant Science
6: 806.
Hill D, Nelson D, Hammond J and Bell L. 2021.
Morphophysiology of potato (Solanum tuberosum) in
response to drought stress: paving the way forward.
Frontiers in Plant Science 11: 597554.
Jatav MK, Dua VK, Govindakrishnan PM and Sharma RP.
2017. Impact of climate change on potato production
in India. In: Sustainable Potato Production and the
Impact of Climate Change, pp. 87–104. IGI Global
Publishers, First Edition.
Kim YU and Lee BW. 2019. Differential mechanisms of
potato yield loss induced by high day and night
temperatures during tuber initiation and bulking:
photosynthesis and tuber growth. Frontiers in Plant
Science 10: 300.
Kong H, Landherr LL, Frohlich MW, Leebens-Mack
J, Ma H and DePamphilis CW. 2007. Patterns of
gene duplication in the plant SKP1 gene family in
angiosperms: evidence for multiple mechanisms
of rapid gene birth. The Plant Journal 50: 873–885.
Lata C and Prasad M. 2011. Role of DREBs in regulation
of abiotic stress responses in plants. Journal of
Experimental Botany 62: 4731–4748.
Letunic I and Bork P. 2024. Interactive Tree of Life
(iTOL) v6: recent updates to the phylogenetic tree
display and annotation tool. Nucleic Acids Research
52: W78–W82.
Levy D and Veilleux RE. 2007. Adaptation of potato to
high temperatures and salinity—a review. American
Journal of Potato Research 84: 487–506.
Li HL, Wu L, Dong Z, Jiang Y, Jiang S, Xing H, Li Q,
Liu G, Tian S, Wu Z, Bin Wu, Li Z, Zhao P, Zhang
Y, Tang J, Xu J, Huang K, Liu X, Zhang W, Liao Q,
Ren Y, Huang X, Li Q, Li C, Wang Y, Xavier-Ravi
B, Li H, Liu Y, Wan T, Liu Q, Zou Y, Jian J, Xia Q,
Liu Y. 2021. Haplotype-resolved genome of diploid
ginger (Zingiber officinale) and its unique gingerol
biosynthetic pathway. Horticulture Research 8. 189
Genome-wide characterization of high temperature shock
transcription factor genes in potato
Potato J 53 (1): January - June, 2026 47
Li HY, Chang CS, Lu LS, Liu CA, Chan MT and Charng
YY. 2003. Over-expression of Arabidopsis thaliana high
temperature shock factor gene (AtHsfA1b) enhances
chilling tolerance in transgenic tomato. Botanical
Bulletin of Academia Sinica 44. 129-140.
Lin YX, Jiang HY, Chu ZX, Tang XL, Zhu SW and Cheng
BJ. 2011. Genome-wide identification, classification
and analysis of high temperature shock transcription
factor family in maize. BMC Genomics 12: 76.
Lohmann C, Eggers-Schumacher G, Wunderlich M and
Schöffl F. 2004. Two different high temperature
shock transcription factors regulate immediate early
expression of stress genes in Arabidopsis. Molecular
Genetics and Genomics 271: 11–21.
Menzel CM. 1980. Tuberization in potato at high
temperatures: responses to gibberellin and growth
inhibitors. Annals of Botany 46: 259–265.
Mishra SK, Tripp J, Winkelhaus S, Tschiersch B, Theres
K, Nover L and Scharf KD. 2002. In the complex
family of high temperature stress transcription
factors, HsfA1 has a unique role as master regulator
of thermotolerance in tomato. Genes & Development
16: 1555–1567.
Muthoni J and Shimelis H. 2020. High temperature and
drought stress and their implications on potato
production under dry African tropics. Australian
Journal of Crop Science 14: 1405–1414.
Nakashima K, Takasaki H, Mizoi J, Shinozaki K and
Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K. 2012. NAC transcription
factors in plant abiotic stress responses. Biochimica
et Biophysica Acta 1819: 97–103.
Obidiegwu JE, Bryan GJ, Jones HG and Prashar A. 2015.
Coping with drought: stress and adaptive responses
in potato and perspectives for improvement. Frontiers
in Plant Science 6: 542.
Ouyang Y, Chen J, Xie W, Wang L and Zhang Q. 2009.
Comprehensive sequence and expression profile
analysis of Hsp20 gene family in rice. Plant Molecular
Biology 70: 341–357.
Scharf KD, Berberich T, Ebersberger I and Nover L.
2012. The plant high temperature stress transcription
factor (Hsf) family: structure, function and evolution.
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1819: 104–119.
Siddique M, Gernhard S, von Koskull-Döring P, Vierling E
and Scharf KD. 2008. The plant sHsp superfamily: five
new members in Arabidopsis thaliana with unexpected
properties. Cell Stress and Chaperones 13: 183–197.
Singh K, Raizada J, Bhardwaj P, Ghawana S, Rani A,
Singh H, Kaul K and Kumar S. 2004. 26S rRNAbased
internal control gene primer pair for reverse
transcription-polymerase chain reaction-based
quantitative expression studies in diverse plant
species. Anal Biochem. 335: 330-333.
Tang R, Zhu W, Song X, Lin X, Cai J, Wang M and Yang
Q. 2016. Genome-wide identification and function
analyses of high temperature shock transcription
factors in potato. Frontiers in Plant Science 7: 490.
Udvardi MK, Kakar K, Wandrey M, Montanari O, Murray
J, Andriankaja A, Zhang J, Benedito V, Hofer JMI,
Chueng F and Town CD. 2007. Legume transcription
factors: global regulators of plant development and
response to the environment. Plant Physiology 144:
538–549.
Vision TJ, Brown DG and Tanksley SD. 2000. The origins
of genomic duplications in Arabidopsis. Science 290:
2114–2117.
Von Koskull-Döring P, Scharf KD and Nover L. 2007. The
diversity of plant high temperature stress transcription
factors. Trends in Plant Science 12: 452–457.
Voorrips RE. 2002. MapChart: software for the graphical
presentation of linkage maps and QTLs. Journal of
Heredity 93: 77–78.
Yang W, Li J, Liu D, Sun J, He L and Zhang A. 2014.
Genome-wide analysis of the high temperature shock
transcription factor family in Triticum urartu and
Aegilops tauschii. Plant Omics 7: 291–297.
Yu J, Cheng Y, Feng K, Ruan M, Ye Q, Wang R and
Wan H. 2016. Genome-wide identification and
expression profiling of tomato Hsp20 gene family
in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Frontiers
in Plant Science 7: 1215.
Yu T, Bai Y, Liu Z, Wang Z, Yang Q, Wu T and Song
X. 2022. Large-scale analyses of high temperature
shock transcription factors and database construction
based on whole-genome genes in horticultural and
representative plants. Horticulture Research 9: uhac035.
Zhao P, Wang D, Wang R, Kong N, Zhang C, Yang C
and Chen Q. 2018. Genome-wide analysis of the
potato Hsp20 gene family: identification, genomic
organization and expression profiles in response
to high temperature stress. BMC Genomics 19: 61.
Zhu, W. & Li, P. & Xue, C. & Chen, M. & Wang, Z. &
Yang, Qing. (2021). Potato Plants Overexpressing
SpHsfA4c Exhibit Enhanced Tolerance to High-
Temperature Stress. Russian Journal of Plant
Physiology. 68. 1208–1217.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Potato Journal

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The copyright of the articles published in Potato Journal is vested with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, which reserves the right to enter into any agreement with any organization in India or abroad, for reprography, photocopying, storage and dissemination of information. The Council has no objection to using the material, provided the information is not being utilized for commercial purposes and wherever the information is being used, proper credit is given to ICAR.