Abstract: To explore the regulatory mechanism of tuber dormancy release in potato under low-temperature stress, this study used the potato cultivar ‘Favorita’ as the experimental material. Transcriptomic and proteomic sequencing and joint analysis were performed on tubers at 7 days, 30 days, and 45 days after harvest. Using room temperature (22±2) ℃ as the control, under low-temperature (4 ℃) stress, there were 3224 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 202 down-regulated differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) on the 7th day after harvest; 3185 down-regulated DEGs and 468 down-regulated DEPs on the 30th day after harvest; and 4763 down-regulated DEGs and 942 down-regulated DEPs on the 45th day after harvest. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses of DEGs showed that low temperature might affect potato dormancy release by regulating energy metabolism or plant hormone signaling pathways. The results of joint analysis were further filtered for DEGs and DEPs that were significantly down-regulated under 4 ℃. Cross-comparison of data from the three time points identified 27 co-downregulated DEGs and DEPs during potato dormancy release under low-temperature stress from day 30 to day 45, among which 13 pairs had consistent gene IDs and protein IDs. Furthermore, 6 gene-protein pairs with strong correlation were screened out based on the Pearson correlation coefficient. The expression patterns of 6 core genes were verified by qRT-PCR to further analyze the functions of these 6 gene-protein pairs in potato dormancy release. The results provided a basis for deciphering the molecular network of potato tuber dormancy release under low-temperature stress.

Key words: dormancy release, expression analysis, bioinformatics analysis, transcriptomics, proteomics