Foliar Spraying of COS Regulate Secondary Metabolism and Promoted Tubers in Potato

doi:10.16420/j.issn.0513-353x.2025-0211

Acta Horticulturae Sinica ›› 2026, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (6): 1722-1736.doi: 10.16420/j.issn.0513-353x.2025-0211

• Cultivation · Physiology & Biochemistry • Previous Articles Next Articles

Foliar Spraying of COS Regulate Secondary Metabolism and Promoted Tubers in Potato

WANG Pengqing¹, CHEN Fu², ZHU Yan¹^,^*(), XIANG Xinyue¹, WU Xiaowen¹, FAN Jikai¹, SONG Yuanming¹, LI Hanru¹, LI Yongcai¹

¹ College of Food Science and Engineering， Gansu Agricultural University， Lanzhou 730070， China
² Potato Research Institute， Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences， Lanzhou 730070， China

Received:2025-12-23 Revised:2026-03-19 Online:2026-06-26 Published:2026-06-24
Contact: ZHU Yan

Abstract

Abstract:

‘Longshu 7’were used as the material，10 g · L^-1 chitosan oligosaccharides（COS）were sprayed on the foliar surface of potato plants during the bulking stage and a metabolomics analysis were combined to investigate its effects on tuber growth and metabolism. The results showed that COS treatment significantly increased plant heightand stem diameter，as well as the tuber weight，tuber diameter，and hundred-seed weight of minitubers. Metabolomics analysis under negative ion mode identified 129 differential metabolites（up-regulated of 32，and down-regulated of 97），of which terpenoids，phenolics，flavonoids，and amino acid compounds showed significant changes. The differential metabolites were mainly enriched in porphyrin metabolism，amino acid metabolism（e.g.，glutamic acid and aspartic acid），and diterpenoid biosynthesis pathways. Correlation analysis showed that up-regulated metabolites including gancaonin Q and L-glutamic acid，were positively correlated with tuber diameter，stem diameter，and plant height. In conclusion，COS promotes potato tuber enlargement and nutrient accumulation，potentially through the regulation of key plant secondary metabolic pathways.

Key words: potato, chito oligosaccharides, tuber enlargement, metabonomics

WANG Pengqing, CHEN Fu, ZHU Yan, XIANG Xinyue, WU Xiaowen, FAN Jikai, SONG Yuanming, LI Hanru, LI Yongcai. Foliar Spraying of COS Regulate Secondary Metabolism and Promoted Tubers in Potato[J]. Acta Horticulturae Sinica, 2026, 53(6): 1722-1736.

Figures/Tables 8

Fig. 1 Effect of chitosan oligosaccharides treatment on plant height and stem diameter of potato plants * indicating significant differences between treatments and the control at the same time（P < 0.05）. The same below

Fig. 2 Effects of chitosan oligosaccharides treatment on the weight，diameter and 100-seeds weight of minitubers

Fig. 3 Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis（A）and displacement test analysis（B）of metabolites

Fig. 4 The volcano diagram of metabolites（A）and the heat map cluster analysis of differential metabolites（B）

Fig. 5 The heatmap of terpenoids（A），flavonoids（B），and phenols（C）

Fig. 6 The heatmap of amino acids（A）and esters（B）

Fig. 7 KEGG pathway analysis（A）and species analysis of the top 20 items annotated with the largeat number of differential metabolites（B）

Fig. 8 Spearman correlation analysis between differential metabolites and physiological indicators Red indicates positive correlation，while blue indicates negative correlation. * indicates significant difference between groups at the 0.05 level

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Foliar Spraying of COS Regulate Secondary Metabolism and Promoted Tubers in Potato

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