Considering the current global rise in health-related issues, focussing on crops with high essential nutrient content and the potential to produce nutraceutical compounds is imperative. Buckwheat (BW) (Fagopyrum spp.) is one such genus belonging to the family Polygonaceae explored for essential nutrients and therapeutic metabolites. In the current scenario, nutritional and health security are major concerns; hence, breeding nutrient-rich crops such as BW will aid in moving forward to sustainable development. OMICs-based approaches have played a pivotal role in investigating the potential of BW as the repository of nutraceuticals. Metabolomic profiling of BW has aided in the comprehensive analysis of metabolites, most of which are involved in a wide range of biochemical pathways related to plant growth, development and defence. In the current review, we explore the updated scientific findings on the metabolomic profile of BW and examine its nutraceutical potential to highlight the capacity of BW to contribute towards global food and health security.
High temperature (HT) stress negatively influences reproductive phases in field crops, and the effects are critical to understand in the present and future climate. This review focuses on research on grain crops (rice, wheat, sorghum, pearl millet, soybean and groundnut) with the goals of identifying (i) the sensitivity of reproductive stages during crop development under HT stress and (ii) the metabolic changes caused by HT on the reproductive tissue. Reproductive stages are the most sensitive stages in plants to stress, particularly flowering and gametogenesis, and which results in a reduction in seed numbers due to fertility loss, improper fertilization, and reduction in seed-set percentage. Most of the field crops are sensitive to a temperature of >35 degrees C during the reproductive growth stages, and this threshold varies among the species and genotypes. Abortion of micro-and/or mega-spores, premature tapetal cell degradation, loss of gamete viability, anther indehiscence, a lower pollen grain germination rate on the stigma, loss of pollen germination, stigma receptivity, pollen tube tip polarity, pollen tube growth signals, and embryo abortion are the physiological processes affected by HT stress. The major changes in the gametes lead to alteration in carbohydrate metabolism and transport, loss of viability, elevated reactive oxygen species production, increased membrane phospholipid saturation level and decreased phosphatidic acid level. Molecular and biochemical tools help to screen and identify the sources of tolerance. Developing crop tolerance to high-temperature stress is possible through continued collaboration among biologists, breeders, and agronomists without affecting the crop grain yields.
The unprecedented challenges to crop production driven by climate change drivers warrant the development of resilient crop varieties to sustain crop yield. In the present and future, climate, drought, salinity and temperature stress will be the major yield-limiting factors. Roots are the primary responders to drought, flooding and salinity and assume a key position in developing plant resilience. Root architecture has emerged as a promising focal point in breeding efforts aimed at developing resource-efficient crops. However, crop selection frequently prioritises shoot performance exclusively because evaluating root traits is a more intricate process. Improving root traits will be a pivotal factor in increasing the efficiency of water and nutrient capture, reducing yield gaps and providing the necessary foundation for the 'Evergreen Revolution', which is essential for aligning crop production with the needs of the growing human population. However, building an ideotype for root system architecture (RSA) has been precluded by obvious difficulties in reliable phenotyping and greater growth plasticity and abiotic stress response of root, as in some cases, the plasticity can be maladaptive due to greater metabolic costs. Nevertheless, a large body of experimental data has been generated to build an optimum root ideotype for diverse stressful environments. In this article, we provide an overview of the typical RSA ideotypes under various stresses that have been suggested in previous research and indicate functional evidence on the role of root phenes that could help breeders in their efforts to include root traits in their selection pipelines for abiotic stress tolerance, aimed to improve the resilience of crops. Such an approach can deliver quicker improvements compared to selection solely based on yield, particularly in stressful environments, using a more precisely tailored approach to increase long-term sustainability and mitigate the impacts of stresses. Also, the probabilities for aligning future abiotic stress breeding strategies based on RSA and other traits are discussed. Prioritising these ideotype-related traits in breeding programs could significantly boost crop production and enhance the long-term sustainability of agriculture
Reliable and low-cost on-site diagnostics offer significant benefits for the detection and diagnosis of plant pests to enable a rapid response to limit their impact. This review assesses in-field, on-site and satellite/remote laboratory-based diagnostic technologies for the detection of plant pests against the ASSURED criteria, a recognised set of benchmarks used to compare on-site tests. Despite this assessment identifying a range of technologies that score highly against these criteria, routine uptake of on-site diagnostics in plant health is limited. Several barriers to uptake exist, the most prevalent being the lack of co-design of novel technologies with end users leading to the end product being unable to fulfil testing objectives or being unsuitable for usage under common operational conditions. This review also identified a lack of standardised validation data sourced from intended environments in the hands of the intended users, noting that this data would be invaluable in evidencing the efficacy of novel on-site technologies within a wider testing program. The lack of this information currently limits the routine integration of on-site tests into regulatory plant health testing due to the high-cost implications of incorrect results.
In Pakistan, cotton is a significant cash and fibre crop. Water stress inhibits the development and growth of plants by modifying biological processes and metabolic activity. Since the severity and length of the stress are crucial for plant growth, losses due to water constraints in crop yield outweigh losses due to all other factors combined. Water-deficit stress significantly decreases crop production by affecting morpho-physiological characteristics which ultimately decreases the fibre quality and reduces the seed cotton yield. Tolerating water deficits includes two crucial stages involving the upregulation of signalling pathways and stimulating molecular expression responses. Enhancement requires various stress-related actions of plants, particularly mechanisms at the physiological, molecular and biochemical regions. The physiological functions indicators of water stress, including stomata closure as well as the development of roots, cellular adaptations, pollen tube maturation, osmotic adjustments, photosynthesis, abscisic acid (ABA), Jasmonic acid (JA) and other phytohormones are generated, along with reactivity of oxygen species (ROS). Stress conditions influence the molecular basis, quantitative trait loci (QTL) and genes related to moisture-deficit tolerance in cotton. Several genetic strategies for genome alteration such as genetic engineering, manipulation of microRNAs, functional genomics and the CRISPR/Cas9 system assist in the growth of cotton tolerance. Different genetic approaches can make it easier to find superior candidate genes connected to stress physiology approaches to functional genomics. We propose the use of comparative analyses of third-generation sequencing data (transcriptomics, proteomics and epigenomic) along with genome-wide analysis and functional genomic techniques to determine and differentiate novel genes. This review will help to comprehend the intricate molecular biology of stress in plants. As the intensity and length of the stress are censorious for plant growth, losses due to water constraints in crop yield outweigh losses due to all other factors combined.
