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Wild Solanum species have contributed many introgressed genes during domestication into current cultivated potatoes, enhancing their biotic and abiotic stress resistance and facilitating global expansion. Abiotic stress negatively impacts potato physiology and productivity. Understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating tuber development may help solve this global problem. We made a transcriptomic analysis of potato microtuberization under darkness, cytokinins, and osmotic stress conditions. A protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis identified 404 genes with high confidence. These genes were involved in important processes like oxidative stress, carbon metabolism, sterol biosynthesis, starch and sucrose metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis, and nucleosome assembly. From this network, we selected nine ancestral genes along with eight additional stress-related genes. We used qPCR to analyze the expression of the selected genes under osmotic, heat–osmotic, cold–osmotic, salt–osmotic, and combined-stress conditions. The principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that 60.61% of the genes analyzed were associated with osmotic, cold–osmotic, and heat–osmotic stress. Seven out of ten introgression/domestication genes showed the highest variance in the analysis. The genes H3.2 and GAPCP1 were involved in osmotic, cold–osmotic, and heat–osmotic stress. Under combined-all stress, TPI and RPL4 were significant, while in salt–osmotic stress conditions, ENO1, HSP70-8, and PER were significant. This indicates the importance of ancestral genes for potato survival during evolution. The targeted manipulation of these genes could improve combined-stress tolerance in potatoes, providing a genetic basis for enhancing crop resilience.

Water conservation in fine roots can be important for the adaptation of trees to cold, nutrient-poor ecosystems. Although pressure–volume (p-v) curve traits are commonly used to assess leaf water conservation, little is known about their intraspecific variation in fine roots and their association with root functional traits, such as morphology and chemistry. Here, we aimed to determine the p-v curve traits of Betula ermanii and Abies mariesii fine roots at 2,000 and 2,500 m elevations and explore their intraspecific variation with root morphological and chemical traits in a subalpine forest. Turgor loss point (π tlp ), relative water content at π tlp , osmotic potential at full hydration, and capacitance at full turgor (C ft ) were evaluated as p-v curve traits. Additionally, root diameter, specific root length, and root tissue density (RTD) were assessed as morphological traits, and nitrogen (N) content was measured as a chemical trait. For A mariesii roots, the C ft was lower, and π tlp was more negative at 2,500 m than at 2,000 m. The p-v curve traits of B ermanii roots remained unchanged with elevation. There were strong correlations between RTD and π tlp and between N content and π tlp and C ft , especially for A. mariesii . These results indicated A. mariesii adjusted p-v curve traits with RTD and N content and achieved water conservation in fine roots at higher elevations. The p-v curve traits, particularly π tlp and C ft , reflected diverse tree strategies for environmental acclimation with fine-root carbon economy. Our findings highlighted the importance of adjusting water relation traits for acclimation to cold and nutrient-poor subalpine regions, particularly for evergreen coniferous species. The p-v curve traits revealed diverse fine-root water relation traits as a basis for water conservation capacity by preserving root function under stress conditions and enabling prolonged resource acquisition in a subalpine forest.