The effect of N deficiency on the growth of potato in vitro
The potato cultivars ‘Lambada’ (sensitive) and ‘Topas’ (tolerant) were differentiated from a set of potato cultivars according to their Membership Function Value of stress tolerance calculated from previously published data (Jozefowicz et al., 2017; Schum et al., 2017). Here, the root PM proteome was analyzed after seven days of N deficiency. Under these conditions, the sensitive cultivar displayed a decrease in root fresh weight, whereas the growth of the tolerant cultivar remained unaffected. N deficiency at this time point did not lead to differences in the root N content or in the shoot fresh weights (Supplementary Fig. S2). This allowed us to analyze mechanisms leading to the early plant acclimation towards low N, excluding the secondary effects of long-term N deficiency, such as senescence. However, when the culture duration was prolonged, the differences between cultivars development and root architecture were more pronounced (Schum & Jansen, 2012, 2013, 2014).