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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Charleston, South Carolina » Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #429077
Research Project: Basic and Applied Approaches for Pest Management in Vegetable Crops

Location: Vegetable Research

Title: Genotypic variation in lead (Pb) accumulation dataset in sweetpotato flesh for 10 accessions from the United States of America

Author
item Bowers Jr, Robert
item ARAMBEWELA, MAHENDRANATH - Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
item LUXTON, TODD - Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
item Wadl, Phillip

Submitted to: Data in Brief
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/3/2025
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Consumption of baby foods containing sweetpotatoes can lead to high risk for exposure to lead. In response the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) developed the action plan Closer to Zero to reduce exposure to toxic elements from foods eaten by babies and young children—to as low as possible. An effective and economically feasible method to deal with production of food crops in heavy metal contaminated soils is the screening and breeding of heavy metal resistant and/or low accumulating crops. This study aimed to collect baseline data on lead accumulation in the flesh of United States of America sweetpotato germplasm that will be used to identify low accumulating genotypes that can be used in breeding efforts to reduce lead concentration in food products containing sweetpotato. Variation in lead accumulation among genotypes was observed with higher accumulating genotypes retaining about 3 times more lead in storage root flesh tissue than lower accumulators. This dataset can assist growers in their efforts to grow safer food and also assist breeders in developing sweetpotato varieties that accumulate less lead.

Technical Abstract: Ten sweetpotato genotypes were exposed to 10 ppm Pb2+ (lead) during 60 days of growth. Flesh of storage roots was separated from the skins, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the lead content of the sweetpotato flesh. All genotypes exposed to lead accumulated lead at least 5x above background levels. Variation in lead accumulation among genotypes was observed with higher accumulating genotypes retaining about 3x more lead in storage root flesh tissue than lower accumulators. This dataset can assist growers in their efforts to grow safer food and also assist breeders in developing sweetpotato varieties that accumulate less lead.