Molecular Microbiology Research, 2025, Vol.15, No.1, 28-36 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mmr 34 Figure 2 Overexpression of IbBBX24 enhances Fob resistance in sweet potato (Adopted from Zhang et al., 2020) 8.2 Exploration and innovative utilization of resistance gene resources To make sweet potatoes more resistant to disease, finding and using resistance genes is the key. Many studies are now using transcriptome analysis technology to find genes related to defense responses. For example, some genes can sense chitin, and some are related to MAPK (mitogen kinase) signaling pathways, which may be good targets for future breeding (Lin et al., 2017). There is also a new method called dRenSeq, which has been used on potatoes. It can efficiently screen for resistance genes and may also be used on sweet potatoes (Armstrong et al., 2018). 8.3 Breeding strategies for multi-disease-resistant varieties If you want sweet potatoes to be resistant to multiple diseases at the same time, you have to use some more advanced breeding methods. For example, "gene pyramiding" means concentrating multiple disease-resistant genes into one variety. This method has been done well on other crops and has hope for sweet potatoes (Berindean et al., 2024). In addition, new technologies such as CRISPR and RNA interference can also be used to accurately edit genes to make breeding faster and more accurate. There are also many cooperative breeding projects in some sub-Saharan Africa. These collaborations are very helpful in promoting the application of these new technologies (Makhubu et al., 2024). 8.4 Disease resistance research in sweet potato and climate change adaptation Climate change has brought two problems to sweet potatoes. On the one hand, it changes the activity pattern of pathogens; on the other hand, it also increases abiotic stresses such as drought. This makes sweet potatoes more susceptible to disease. To adapt to this change, we need to study in depth how sweet potatoes resist drought. At the same time, more drought-tolerant varieties should be selected (Sapakhova et al., 2023). In addition, abiotic stresses (such as high temperatures, droughts) and biological stresses caused by pathogens will also affect each
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