Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is an important food and industrial crop
throughout the world. It is an alternative source of raw materials for
biofuel production. China is the biggest sweet potato producer in the world.
Thus, several researches were conducted to improved sweet potato through
biotechnology.

China has been using an efficient system of embryogenic suspension cultures
for sweet potato genotypes since the 1980s in which plant regeneration in
different tissues via organogenesis or somatic embryogenesis have been
successful. Somatic hybridization has also been utilized to overcome
incompatibility between sweet potato and its relatives. The first
interspecific somatic hybrid was produced between sweet potato and Ipomoea
triloba by fusing petiole protoplasts of two species using the polyethylene
glycol (PEG) method. It has generated useful interspecific somatic hybrids.

Cell induced mutation by gamma ray irradiation and in vitro selection have
also been used to produce novel mutants. Agrobacterium-mediated
transformation has been standardized for important cultivars, and has been
used to produce transgenic plants resistant to diseases, stresses and
herbicides. Molekular markers linked to a stem nematode resistance gene have
been developed.

The paper summarizes China's advances in sweet potato biotechnology and
suggests future directions for research in biotechnology of sweet potato.

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