Starch Accumulation in Leaves of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) during the First 18 Days of Photoperiod Treatment

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) plants were grown under long days(LD) of 18 h before a subset of the plants was transferred to10-h photosynthetic periods with either a dark night (SD) oran 8-h dim photoperiod extension with incandescent lamps (DE).Temperature was constant at 21 °C. Leaves were sampled atthe beginning and end of the high density light period for starchanalyses. Potato leaves accumulated starch more rapidly underSD than under LD; and this difference continued after a secondmajor sink, the tuber, began to develop. Starch accumulationover 10 h in SD leaves was three times higher than in LD leaves,even after 17 d of treatment. By this time SD gave higher wholeplant relative growth rates than LD, and the tuber mass of SDplants exceeded 30% of their total plant biomass. The DE treatmentresulted in starch accumulation intermediate to the LD and SDtreatments. Genotypes likewise differed: the earlier genotype,more strongly induced to tuberize, had higher leaf starch accumulationthan the later genotype. The effects of photoperiod and genotypewere also present when potatoes were grown at 27 °C, a temperatureunfavourable for tuberization under LD. Thus the formation ofa strong tuber sink was consistently associated with more rapidleaf starch accumulation. Potato, Solanum tuberosum L., cv. Norchip, photoperiod, temperature, genotype, starch accumulation, partitionin