Storage root formation, dry matter synthesis, accumulation and genetics in sweetpotato

Sweetpotato is a relatively drought tolerant crop providing the highest dry matter content for human consumption. High dry matter content is the main characteristic preferred by consumers and processors of sweetpotato. There is a continued need to develop and release new and high yielding sweetpotato varieties possessing high dry matter content. The objective of this paper is to review important aspects in the breeding of the crop to achieve high storage root yield and increased dry matter content. The paper highlights development and synthesis processes of dry matter of sweetpotato storage root, gene actions and correlation between traits associated with dry matter accumulation, breeding of sweetpotato for high dry matter content, approaches to screening of clones with high dry matter content and effects of genotype by environment interaction on yield and dry matter content.