PHYSIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND PROTEIN MODELLING OF POTATO PROTEINS INVOLVED IN TUBERIZATION

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) has many characteristics that make it an influential organism for human consumption and experiments of genetic engineering. One of them is tuberization, which differentiate potatoes from other closely related species. Reason lies behind the existence of genes responsible for the tuberization process in potato and their regulation during specific periods of time. The aim of this study was to functionally characterize the proteins involving in this process and disclose their physiochemical properties. Using bioinformatics tools and softwares, phylogenetic relationships and structural models of their proteins were also developed. StSP6A, POTH1, StBEL5, StPHYB, StSP3D, StTFL1, POTM1-1 and St Constans were the key players associated with the regulation of tuberization. ExPASy was used to determine the abundance of amino acids in these proteins and Swissmodel was used to make 3D models of proteins. StPHYB, StSP3D and StTFL1 were found to have complex structures owing to presence of several polypeptide chains together while St Constans had the simplest one. On phylogenetic tree, StSP6A, StBEL5, StSP3D and StTFL1 showed similarities while POTH1, StPHYB, POTM1-1 and St Constans showed a completely different lineage making clear that they have evolved separately from each other. It is expected that in coming years, many novel proteins involved in potato tuberization would be explored using new predictive tools and used in genetic manipulation techniques.