MUMBAI, India, Sept. 28 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (202511011917 A) filed by Indian Council Of Agricultural Research on February 12, 2025, for Rnai-Mediated Gene Silencing For Amelioration Of Cold-Induced Sweetening In Plants.
Inventors include Pattanayak, Debasis; Paul, Krishnayan; Jaiswal, Sandeep; K. , Venkat Raman; Bhattacharjee, Sougata; Sreevathsa, Rohini; Saakre, Manjesh; Tilgam, Jyotsana; Kumari, Priyanka; Baaniya, Mahi; and Vijayan, Joshitha.
The application for the patent was published on September 25, 2026, under issue no. 39/2026.
Abstract: Potato is kept in cold store to retain physiological vigour by preventing rot, shrinkage, and sprouting; and for round-the-year availability. However, breakdown of starch during cold storage of potatoes results in accumulation of reducing sugars (glucose and fructose, RS), an unwanted physiological process termed as ‘Cold-induced sweetening’ (CIS). Two enzymes, vacoular acid invertase (VaInv) and UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (UGPase) play a critical role in CIS pathway. The present disclosure relates to RNAi-mediated combinatorial silencing of genes encoding UGPase and VaInv to ameliorate CIS. In the present disclosure, hairpin RNA (hpRNA) construct, CISCOM, was developed by placing cDNA fragments of StUGPase and StVaInv contiguously in sense and antisense orientation intervened by GBSS intron. The CISCOM construct was put under the transcriptional control of CaMV 35S promoter and NOS terminator. The present combinatorial RNAi-mediated silencing of genes is found to be effective in amelioration of CIS and consequent improvement of cold-chipping attributes.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
