Rohi Bhatt, Budhi Sagar Tiwari

Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology;Volume 58, June 2024, 103133

Abstract

Potatoes produce two major steroidal glycoalkoids α-solanine and α-chaconine that comprise about 95% of all the glycoalkaloids in the potatoes. Under the stressful conditions production of glycoalkaloids get amplified that can lead to toxic symptoms in humans, particularly when taken in excess of 200–400 mg in adults and 20–40 mg in children. Toxicity may lead number of neuro-metabolic disorders due to anticholinesterase activity and also cause cell membrane disturbance ultimately affecting the digestion and metabolism. Minimizing these glycoalkaloids in potato tubers is crucial to reduce toxicity. Based on the previous reports suggesting α-solanine as a significant inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase, in this study we have analyzed the interaction of α-solanine, with acetylcholinesterase using computer-based docking and molecular-dynamic simulations. Our findings from docking studies with acetylcholinesterase showed a high docking score (−16.630 kcal/mol) for α-solanine, while molecular dynamics simulation suggested that α-solanine forms stable protein-ligand interactions with acetylcholinesterase. After having confirmed interaction through the docking and simulation results, we attempted to suppress the α-solanine level through suppression of the Solanidine galactosyltransferase (sgt1) gene that catalyzes solanidine to α-solanine conversion during the biosynthesis of α-solanine using the CRISPRi/dCas9-KRAB tool. Through CRISPRi/dCas9-KRAB, we intended to specifically target reducing the α-solanine level without disturbing the cellular concentration of α-chaconine. Our developed transgenic potatoes with suppressed sgt1 gene showed low α-solanine and unchanged α-chaconine levels, while nutritional analysis showed no significant changes compared to untransformed plants.

See https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1878818124001166

Figure: α-solanine in potato