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Liu S, Zenda T, Tian Z, Huang Z. Metabolic pathways engineering for drought or/and heat tolerance in cereals. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1111875. [PMID: 37810398 PMCID: PMC10557149 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1111875] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2022] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023]
Abstract
Drought (D) and heat (H) are the two major abiotic stresses hindering cereal crop growth and productivity, either singly or in combination (D/+H), by imposing various negative impacts on plant physiological and biochemical processes. Consequently, this decreases overall cereal crop production and impacts global food availability and human nutrition. To achieve global food and nutrition security vis-a-vis global climate change, deployment of new strategies for enhancing crop D/+H stress tolerance and higher nutritive value in cereals is imperative. This depends on first gaining a mechanistic understanding of the mechanisms underlying D/+H stress response. Meanwhile, functional genomics has revealed several stress-related genes that have been successfully used in target-gene approach to generate stress-tolerant cultivars and sustain crop productivity over the past decades. However, the fast-changing climate, coupled with the complexity and multigenic nature of D/+H tolerance suggest that single-gene/trait targeting may not suffice in improving such traits. Hence, in this review-cum-perspective, we advance that targeted multiple-gene or metabolic pathway manipulation could represent the most effective approach for improving D/+H stress tolerance. First, we highlight the impact of D/+H stress on cereal crops, and the elaborate plant physiological and molecular responses. We then discuss how key primary metabolism- and secondary metabolism-related metabolic pathways, including carbon metabolism, starch metabolism, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) biosynthesis, and phytohormone biosynthesis and signaling can be modified using modern molecular biotechnology approaches such as CRISPR-Cas9 system and synthetic biology (Synbio) to enhance D/+H tolerance in cereal crops. Understandably, several bottlenecks hinder metabolic pathway modification, including those related to feedback regulation, gene functional annotation, complex crosstalk between pathways, and metabolomics data and spatiotemporal gene expressions analyses. Nonetheless, recent advances in molecular biotechnology, genome-editing, single-cell metabolomics, and data annotation and analysis approaches, when integrated, offer unprecedented opportunities for pathway engineering for enhancing crop D/+H stress tolerance and improved yield. Especially, Synbio-based strategies will accelerate the development of climate resilient and nutrient-dense cereals, critical for achieving global food security and combating malnutrition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Songtao Liu
- Hebei Key Laboratory of Quality & Safety Analysis-Testing for Agro-Products and Food, Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou, China
| | - Tinashe Zenda
- State Key Laboratory of North China Crop Improvement and Regulation, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China
| | - Zaimin Tian
- Hebei Key Laboratory of Quality & Safety Analysis-Testing for Agro-Products and Food, Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou, China
| | - Zhihong Huang
- Hebei Key Laboratory of Quality & Safety Analysis-Testing for Agro-Products and Food, Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou, China
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Kumar S, Kotwal N. Millets (Shrianna) and lifestyle diseases: A healing touch. Med J Armed Forces India 2023; 79:249-252. [PMID: 37193512 PMCID: PMC10182399 DOI: 10.1016/j.mjafi.2023.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 04/02/2023] [Indexed: 05/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Traditionally, millets were the earliest food to be domesticated by human beings and it constituted the staple food for various civilisations across Asia and Africa. Somehow, during the course of modernization, the production and consumption of millets has declined significantly. Government of India has taken a lead role and has launched widescale strategies to promote millets in order to make India a global hub for millets. Millets has immense potential in enhancing the socioeconomic and health status of people. Regular consumption of millets translates into better post prandial blood glucose and better HbA1c levels. Millets mitigates atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk by lowering insulin resistance, better glycemic control, lowering non high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, lowering BP and by virtue of presence of various antioxidants. There is a need to revive the awareness about nutritive and therapeutic values of millets. Scientific community is increasingly realising the enormous potential of millets in enhancing the nutritional quality of the population and as a tool to halt the global pandemic of lifestyle diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandeep Kumar
- Classified Specialist (Medicine) & Endocrinologist, 7 Air Force Hospital, Kanpur, India
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Shekhar S, Prasad AS, Banjare K, Kaushik A, Mannade AK, Dubey M, Patil A, Premi V, Vishwakarma AK, Sao A, Saxena RR, Dubey A, Chandel G. LMT db: A comprehensive transcriptome database for climate-resilient, nutritionally rich little millet ( Panicum sumatrense). FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1106104. [PMID: 36993866 PMCID: PMC10041709 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1106104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Little millet (Panicum sumatrense) a native of Chhattisgarh, belongs to the minor millet group and is primarily known as a climate-resilient and nutritionally rich crop. However, due to the lack of enough Omic studies on the crop, the scientific community has largely remained unaware of the potential of this crop, resulting in less scope for its utilization in crop improvement programs. Looking at global warming, erratic climate change, nutritional security, and limited genetic information available, the Little Millet Transcriptome Database (LMTdb) (https://igkv.ac.in/xenom/index.aspx) was conceptualized upon completion of the transcriptome sequencing of little millet with the aim of deciphering the genetic signatures of this largely unknown crop. The database was developed with the view of providing information about the most comprehensive part of the genome, the 'Transcriptome'. The database includes transcriptome sequence information, functional annotation, microsatellite markers, DEGs, and pathway information. The database is a freely available resource that provides breeders and scientists a portal to search, browse, and query data to facilitate functional and applied Omic studies in millet crops.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shweta Shekhar
- Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, India
| | - Archana S. Prasad
- Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, India
| | - Kalpana Banjare
- Knowledge and Technology Resource Centre, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, India
| | - Abhijeet Kaushik
- Knowledge and Technology Resource Centre, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, India
| | - Ajit K. Mannade
- Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, India
| | - Mahima Dubey
- Department of Vegetable Biotechnology, VNR Seeds Private Limited, Raipur, India
| | - Arun Patil
- Department of Vegetable Biotechnology, VNR Seeds Private Limited, Raipur, India
| | - Vinay Premi
- Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, India
| | | | - Abhinav Sao
- Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, India
| | - Ravi R. Saxena
- Knowledge and Technology Resource Centre, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, India
| | - Amit Dubey
- Chhattisgarh Council of Science and Technology, Raipur, India
| | - Girish Chandel
- Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, India
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Kudapa H, Barmukh R, Vemuri H, Gorthy S, Pinnamaneni R, Vetriventhan M, Srivastava RK, Joshi P, Habyarimana E, Gupta SK, Govindaraj M. Genetic and genomic interventions in crop biofortification: Examples in millets. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1123655. [PMID: 36950360 PMCID: PMC10025513 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1123655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2022] [Accepted: 02/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious threat to the developing world's human population, which largely relies on a cereal-based diet that lacks diversity and micronutrients. Besides major cereals, millets represent the key sources of energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals for people residing in the dryland tropics and drought-prone areas of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Millets serve as multi-purpose crops with several salient traits including tolerance to abiotic stresses, adaptation to diverse agro-ecologies, higher productivity in nutrient-poor soils, and rich nutritional characteristics. Considering the potential of millets in empowering smallholder farmers, adapting to changing climate, and transforming agrifood systems, the year 2023 has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Millets. In this review, we highlight recent genetic and genomic innovations that can be explored to enhance grain micronutrient density in millets. We summarize the advances made in high-throughput phenotyping to accurately measure grain micronutrient content in cereals. We shed light on genetic diversity in millet germplasm collections existing globally that can be exploited for developing nutrient-dense and high-yielding varieties to address food and nutritional security. Furthermore, we describe the progress made in the fields of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and phenomics with an emphasis on enhancing the grain nutritional content for designing competitive biofortified varieties for the future. Considering the close genetic-relatedness within cereals, upcoming research should focus on identifying the genetic and genomic basis of nutritional traits in millets and introgressing them into major cereals through integrated omics approaches. Recent breakthroughs in the genome editing toolbox would be crucial for mainstreaming biofortification in millets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Himabindu Kudapa
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Telangana, India
| | - Rutwik Barmukh
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Telangana, India
| | - Hindu Vemuri
- International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Patancheru, Telangana, India
| | - Sunita Gorthy
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Telangana, India
| | | | - Mani Vetriventhan
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Telangana, India
| | - Rakesh K. Srivastava
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Telangana, India
| | - Priyanka Joshi
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Telangana, India
| | - Ephrem Habyarimana
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Telangana, India
| | - S. K. Gupta
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Telangana, India
| | - Mahalingam Govindaraj
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Telangana, India
- HarvestPlus Program, Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia
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Babele PK, Srivastava A, Selim KA, Kumar A. Millet-inspired systems metabolic engineering of NUE in crops. Trends Biotechnol 2022; 41:701-713. [PMID: 36566140 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.10.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Revised: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/27/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
The use of nitrogen (N) fertilizers in agriculture has a great ability to increase crop productivity. However, their excessive use has detrimental effects on the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to develop crop varieties with improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) that require less N but have substantial yields. Orphan crops such as millets are cultivated in limited regions and are well adapted to lower input conditions. Therefore, they serve as a rich source of beneficial traits that can be transferred into major crops to improve their NUE. This review highlights the tremendous potential of systems biology to unravel the enzymes and pathways involved in the N metabolism of millets, which can open new possibilities to generate transgenic crops with improved NUE.
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Affiliation(s)
- Piyoosh K Babele
- Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi 284003, Uttar Pradesh, India.
| | - Amit Srivastava
- University of Jyväskylä, Nanoscience Centre, Department of Biological and Environmental Science, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Khaled A Selim
- Organismic Interactions Department, Interfaculty Institute for Microbiology and Infection Medicine, Cluster of Excellence 'Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections', Tübingen University, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Anil Kumar
- Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi 284003, Uttar Pradesh, India
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