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In the present study, an effective secondary selection of transgressive variants from a homozygous population of Pusa Sugandh 3 (PS3) has led to the development of basmati variant SKUA 494. SKUA 494 exhibited a grain yield (7.9 t/ha) with superiority of 21.5% over its progenitor (6.5 t/ha). Besides, the genotype revealed an earliness of about 13 and 15 days for flowering and maturity, respectively. Hulling, milling and head rice recovery traits of SKUA 494 were comparatively better over the controls PS3 and Pusa Basmati 1509. No significant differences in the cooking quality were observed in SKUA 494 over its parental line. Quality traits of SKUA 494 revealed an intermediate score for alkali spreading value, besides similar values for gel consistency and amylose content in comparison to PS3. On the basis of stability variables, stability index and overall mean for most of the traits, SKUA 494 depicted stable performance across the locations and over the years. Molecular analysis based on simple sequence repeat markers revealed polymorphism at locus flanking the quantitative trait loci for days to heading (Hd6) between SKUA 494 and its parent (PS3). Based on overall superiority in the performance and adaptability of SKUA 494, the variety has been recommended to farmers for general cultivation under temperate ecology.

The ever-rising population of the twenty-first century together with the prevailing challenges, such as deteriorating quality of arable land and water, has placed a big challenge for plant breeders to satisfy human needs for food under erratic weather patterns. Rice, wheat, and maize are the major staple crops consumed globally. Drought, waterlogging, heat, salinity, and mineral toxicity are the key abiotic stresses drastically affecting crop yield. Conventional plant breeding approaches towards abiotic stress tolerance have gained success to limited extent, due to the complex (multigenic) nature of these stresses. Progress in breeding climate-resilient crop plants has gained momentum in the last decade, due to improved understanding of the physiochemical and molecular basis of various stresses. A good number of genes have been characterized for adaptation to various stresses. In the era of novel molecular markers, mapping of QTLs has emerged as viable solution for breeding crops tolerant to abiotic stresses. Therefore, molecular breeding-based development and deployment of high-yielding climate-resilient crop cultivars together with climate-smart agricultural practices can pave the path to enhanced crop yields for smallholder farmers in areas vulnerable to the climate change. Advances in fine mapping and expression studies integrated with cheaper prices offer new avenues for the plant breeders engaged in climate-resilient plant breeding, and thereby, hope persists to ensure food security in the era of climate change.

Climate change is a threat to global food security due to the reduction of crop productivity around the globe. Food security is a matter of concern for stakeholders and policymakers as the global population is predicted to bypass 10 billion in the coming years. Crop improvement via modern breeding techniques along with efficient agronomic practices innovations in microbiome applications, and exploiting the natural variations in underutilized crops is an excellent way forward to fulfill future food requirements. In this review, we describe the next-generation breeding tools that can be used to increase crop production by developing climate-resilient superior genotypes to cope with the future challenges of global food security. Recent innovations in genomic-assisted breeding (GAB) strategies allow the construction of highly annotated crop pan-genomes to give a snapshot of the full landscape of genetic diversity (GD) and recapture the lost gene repertoire of a species. Pan-genomes provide new platforms to exploit these unique genes or genetic variation for optimizing breeding programs. The advent of next-generation clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/CRISPR-associated (CRISPR/Cas) systems, such as prime editing, base editing, and de nova domestication, has institutionalized the idea that genome editing is revamped for crop improvement. Also, the availability of versatile Cas orthologs, including Cas9, Cas12, Cas13, and Cas14, improved the editing efficiency. Now, the CRISPR/Cas systems have numerous applications in crop research and successfully edit the major crop to develop resistance against abiotic and biotic stress. By adopting high-throughput phenotyping approaches and big data analytics tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), agriculture is heading toward automation or digitalization. The integration of speed breeding with genomic and phenomic tools can allow rapid gene identifications and ultimately accelerate crop improvement programs. In addition, the integration of next-generation multidisciplinary breeding platforms can open exciting avenues to develop climate-ready crops toward global food security.

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae) is in the focus of interest mainly for its positive effects on health of both human and animal organisms. Due to the similarities in vegetative morphology, Hippophae species are often misidentified. Therefore, current study was focused on ITS based sequence characterization of sea buckthorn species and comparative biochemical evaluation for its antioxidant properties.DNA was extracted from leaf samples. Primer pairs K-Lab-SeaBukRhm-ITS1F1- K-Lab-SeaBukRhm-ITS1R1 and K-LabSeaBukTib- ITSF1- K-LabSeaBukTib-ITSR1 were used for PCR amplification. The purified PCR products were outsourced for sequencing. Phylogenetic tree was constructed based on neighbor-joining (NJ) method. Moreover, comparison of antioxidant potential of leaves of two sea buckthorn species (Hippophae rhamnoides and Hippophae tibetana) collected from different regions of Ladakh viz., Stakna, Nubra, DRDO Leh and Zanskar was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2-azino-bis (3- ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS), and Total antioxidant capacity (TAC) by phosphomolybdenum assays. The present investigation led to the differentiation of two sea buckthorn species viz., H. rhamnoides and H. tibetana based on Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region. Moreover, significant variation was observed in antioxidant potential of leaf extracts collected from different regions.Primary ITS sequence analysis was found to be powerful tool for identification and genetic diversity studies in sea buckthorn. Leaves of sea buckthorn have pronounced antioxidant properties and can be used in food, neutraceuticals and pharmaceutical industries etc. The current study will pave the way to discover small bioactive molecules responsible for antioxidant and anticancer properties in sea buckthorn.

This chapter focuses on target traits for drought stress, progress in mapping for drought tolerance-associated genes/QTLs identification and expression studies and introgression strategies followed by the possibilities of integrating the concept of speed breeding in maize drought breeding programmes for better utilization of wild relatives.

Screening for drought tolerance requires precise techniques like phonemics, which is an emerging science aimed at non-destructive methods allowing large-scale screening of genotypes. Large-scale screening complements genomic efforts to identify genes relevant for crop improvement. Thirty maize inbred lines from various sources (exotic and indigenous) maintained at Dryland Agriculture Research Station were used in the current study. In the automated plant transport and imaging systems (LemnaTec Scanalyzer system for large plants), top and side view images were taken of the VIS (visible) and NIR (near infrared) range of the light spectrum to capture phenes. All images were obtained with a thermal imager. All sensors were used to collect images one day after shifting the pots from the greenhouse for 11 days. Image processing was done using pre-processing, segmentation and flowered by features’ extraction. Different surrogate traits such as pixel area, plant aspect ratio, convex hull ratio and calliper length were estimated. A strong association was found between canopy temperature and above ground biomass under stress conditions. Promising lines in different surrogates will be utilized in breeding programmes to develop mapping populations for traits of interest related to drought resilience, in terms of improved tissue water status and mapping of genes/QTLs for drought traits.

Nitrogen, the vital primary plant growth nutrient at deficit soil conditions, drastically affects the growth and yield of a crop. Over the years, excess use of inorganic nitrogenous fertilizers resulted in pollution, eutrophication and thereby demanding the reduction in the use of chemical fertilizers. Being a C(4) plant with fibrous root system and high NUE, maize can be deployed to be the best candidate for better N uptake and utilization in nitrogen deficient soils. The maize germplasm sources has enormous genetic variation for better nitrogen uptake contributing traits. Adoption of single cross maize hybrids as well as inherent property of high NUE has helped maize cultivars to achieve the highest growth rate among the cereals during last decade. Further, considering the high cost of nitrogenous fertilizers, adverse effects on soil health and environmental impact, maize improvement demands better utilization of existing genetic variation for NUE via introgression of novel allelic combinations in existing cultivars. Marker assisted breeding efforts need to be supplemented with introgression of genes/QTLs related to NUE in ruling varieties and thereby enhancing the overall productivity of maize in a sustainable manner. To achieve this, we need mapped genes and network of interacting genes and proteins to be elucidated. Identified genes may be used in screening ideal maize genotypes in terms of better physiological functionality exhibiting high NUE. Future genome editing may help in developing lines with increased productivity under low N conditions in an environment of optimum agronomic practices. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-021-01113-z.

Around 70 percent of crop yield losses are projected because of climate induced abiotic stresses like moisture stress, soil salinity and heat stress. Critical to the stability of cropping systems in the face of climate change is the capacity to rapidly grow germplasm with tolerance to complex polygenic inherited abiotic and biotic stresses combined. Molecular breeding provides the means to speed up cereal breeding, but adequate phenotyping protocols are required to ensure that the much-anticipated benefits of novel breeding tools can be realized. Tremendous advances in phenomics have taken place in the recent past. Both forward and reverse phenomics have developed to help determine either the best genotype with the desired feature or mechanism and the genes that make the genotype the best. High-throughput phenomics studies include techniques for screening substantial germplasm sets for a specific trait using high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) technologies like advanced robots, high-tech sensors, 3D imaging, fluorescence imaging, NIR imaging, lemnatec, etc. The high velocity of plant phenotyping based on phenomics accelerates the selection phase of potential advanced germplasm resilient towards climate induced stresses.

Genome-editing (GE) is having a tremendous influence around the globe in the life science community. Among its versatile uses, the desired modifications of genes, and more importantly the transgene (DNA)-free approach to develop genetically modified organism (GMO), are of special interest. The recent and rapid developments in genome-editing technology have given rise to hopes to achieve global food security in a sustainable manner. We here discuss recent developments in CRISPR-based genome-editing tools for crop improvement concerning adaptation, opportunities, and challenges. Some of the notable advances highlighted here include the development of transgene (DNA)-free genome plants, the availability of compatible nucleases, and the development of safe and effective CRISPR delivery vehicles for plant genome editing, multi-gene targeting and complex genome editing, base editing and prime editing to achieve more complex genetic engineering. Additionally, new avenues that facilitate fine-tuning plant gene regulation have also been addressed. In spite of the tremendous potential of CRISPR and other gene editing tools, major challenges remain. Some of the challenges are related to the practical advances required for the efficient delivery of CRISPR reagents and for precision genome editing, while others come from government policies and public acceptance. This review will therefore be helpful to gain insights into technological advances, its applications, and future challenges for crop improvement.

From time immemorial, humans have exploited plants as a source of food and medicines. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded 21,000 plants with medicinal value out of 300,000 species available worldwide. The promising modern “multi-omics” platforms and tools have been proven as functional platforms able to endow us with comprehensive knowledge of the proteome, genome, transcriptome, and metabolome of medicinal plant systems so as to reveal the novel connected genetic (gene) pathways, proteins, regulator sequences and secondary metabolite (molecule) biosynthetic pathways of various drug and protein molecules from a variety of plants with therapeutic significance. This review paper endeavors to abridge the contemporary advancements in research areas of multi-omics and the information involved in decoding its prospective relevance to the utilization of plants with medicinal value in the present global scenario. The crosstalk of medicinal plants with genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics approaches will be discussed.

To match predicted population growth, annual food production should be doubled by 2050. This is not achievable by current agronomical and breeding practices, due to the impact of climate changes and associated abiotic stresses on agricultural production systems. Here, we analyze the impact of global climate trends on crop productivity and show that the overall loss in crop production from climate-driven abiotic stresses may exceed US$170 billion year–1 and represents a major threat to global food security. We also show that abiotic stress tolerance had been present in wild progenitors of modern crops but was lost during their domestication. We argue for a major shift in our paradigm of crop breeding, focusing on climate resilience, and call for a broader use of wild relatives as a major tool in this process. We argue that, while molecular tools are currently in place to harness the potential of climate-resilient genes present in wild relatives, the complex polygenic nature of tolerance traits remains a major bottleneck in this process. Future research efforts should be focused not only on finding appropriate wild relatives but also on development of efficient cell-based high-throughput phenotyping platforms allowing assessment of the in planta operation of key genes.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has always been the most valuable staple food in the world cereal production. It is the leading grain crop of temperate climates of the world, like rice in the tropics. Wheat along with other cereal grains has many natural advantages as a grain food. It is an important inexpensive food providing calories, carbohydrates, and protein, and is readily converted into numerous products solely or in variable proportions with other food products for producing nutritious rich food accommodates. Globally, wild relatives of wheat are maintained in various world germplasm resources, some accessions are well documented and reported for utilization in wheat improvement programs but still some other accessions are poorly characterized and there may be numerous causes for this. These wild relatives need more time for the germplasm improvement and few institutes are involved with their interspecific hybridization, needs more use of modern tools like in cotton, rice, maize, and soybean. Wheat and related wild species produce from many generations rapidly ranging from perennial to annual types and face less danger of extinction as compared to cultivated landraces. But in fact, many annual wild relatives are under extinction threat due to changing pattern land use, monotype wheat cultivation, climate change, and stresses. Emmer wild wheat has involvement from different wild populations to develop wild relatives. Present cultivated wheat contains genomes from Aegilops and Triticum genus, Aegilops is not grown anywhere in the world but several polyploid species of Triticum are cultivated including T. turgidum, T. timopheevii, and T. compactum. Most of wild diploid species are presumably monophyletic in origin and gave rise to hexaploid wheat with divergence for growth requirement in different locations around the globe. Evidence from literature showed that multiple wild population contribution toward modern wheat and incorporation of biotechnological tools have eased the development of superior trait wheat types. In the proceeding chapter, some aspects of wheat improvement have been discussed to give an overview of what that has been achieved for the development of modern wheat varieties and could be expected more from wild relatives.

Sugar alcohols or polyols are derivatives of sugars produced in high amounts during salt or drought (abiotic) stress in plants. A number of sugar alcohols identified in plants include manitol, sorbitol, D-ononitol, pinitol, adonitol, ribitol, glucitol etc., which are classified as cyclic and non-cyclic polyols. Osmoregulation is a phenomenon of regulating constant fluid osmotic pressure in cells through salt and water concentrations during abiotic stress conditions. In plants, abiotic stress induces water loss, and at the same time, they release osmolytes including sugar alcohols which maintains osmoregulation. Sugar alcohols play a crucial role in osmotic adaptations and exert tolerance to salt and drought stress in plants. Due to the importance of sugar alcohols in crop improvement its metaolism, osmotic adaptations and role of transformational studies are discussed in the present chapter.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. By 2050, human population is expected to reach 9.7 billion. The demand for increased food production needs to be met from ever reducing resources of land, water and other environmental constraints. Rice remains the staple food source for a majority of the global populations, but especially in Asia where ninety percent of rice is grown and consumed. Climate change continues to impose abiotic and biotic stresses that curtail rice quality and yields. Researchers have been challenged to provide innovative solutions to maintain, or even increase, rice production. Amongst them, the ‘green super rice’ breeding strategy has been successful for leading the development and release of multiple abiotic and biotic stress tolerant rice varieties. Recent advances in plant molecular biology and biotechnologies have led to the identification of stress responsive genes and signaling pathways, which open up new paradigms to augment rice productivity. Accordingly, transcription factors, protein kinases and enzymes for generating protective metabolites and proteins all contribute to an intricate network of events that guard and maintain cellular integrity. In addition, various quantitative trait loci associated with elevated stress tolerance have been cloned, resulting in the detection of novel genes for biotic and abiotic stress resistance. Mechanistic understanding of the genetic basis of traits, such as N and P use, is allowing rice researchers to engineer nutrient-efficient rice varieties, which would result in higher yields with lower inputs. Likewise, the research in micronutrients biosynthesis opens doors to genetic engineering of metabolic pathways to enhance micronutrients production. With third generation sequencing techniques on the horizon, exciting progress can be expected to vastly improve molecular markers for gene-trait associations forecast with increasing accuracy. This book emphasizes on the areas of rice science that attempt to overcome the foremost limitations in rice production. Our intention is to highlight research advances in the fields of physiology, molecular breeding and genetics, with a special focus on increasing productivity, improving biotic and abiotic stress tolerance and nutritional quality of rice. ; Up-to-date contributions by experts from international research centers and universities Provides practical knowledge and strong scientific foundation on rice biotechnology All-in-one resource for current advances in rice breeding Open Access

Osmotic stress and other abiotic stresses have severe impacts on crop productivity. Since climate change is predicted to exacerbate the problem, the development of a new breed of crops, which are tolerant to osmotic stresses, is required. Vicissitudes in contiguous environmental scenarios can be sensed by molecular osmosensors, which sequentially activate cellular signalling proceedings that regulate plant homeostasis for repairs of normal growth and development. However, only limited success has been achieved in agriculture till date primarily because of the lack of a clear understanding of the mechanisms that facilitate osmosensing. In this chapter, we deliberate on the potential mechanisms of osmosensing and signalling in plants, emphasizing the receptor-like kinases, mechanosensitive calcium channels, phospholipase C, aquaporins, and membrane-bound histidine kinases for detection of vicissitudes in extracellular plant osmolarity. Genetic engineering and genome editing of the Osmotic Stress–Regulated (OR) genes and osmosensors including Receptor-Like Kinases (RLKs) and Histidine kinases (HKs) may positively affect stress tolerance by manipulating signalling factors downstream and by elucidating the regulatory mechanism of osmosensors in downstream signalling pathways; designing of the next-generation climate smart crops will be possible.

Trichoderma spp. are the most versatile biocontrol agents which have long been used for biocontrol, biofertilization, and alleviators of various abiotic stresses. They are known to produce several bioactive compounds and elicitors which directly interact with the host roots, thereby increasing the growth of plants and resistance to several biotic and abiotic stresses. They may protect the plants from phytopathogens by the formation of antibiotic, hydrolytic enzymes, mycoparasitism, competition for nutrients, induction of defense-related genes, induced systemic resistance, and production of various secondary metabolites. These mechanisms may directly or indirectly inhibit the growth of phytopathogens, rendering them ineffective to cause any disease. They are also known to induce tolerance in response to various abiotic stresses like drought, cold, salinity, heavy metal, etc. The current knowledge related to the mechanisms employed by Trichoderma spp. in alleviating the biotic and abiotic stresses in plants could be further investigated to improve its potential to combat various stresses in plants. This chapter presents the updates on published research findings about the potential of Trichoderma species in alleviating biotic and abiotic stresses in plants and the underlying mechanisms thereof.

The genus Gossypium is comprised of more than 50 genetically diverse species with different origins and ploidy levels. Each of cultivated and wild species is a source of unique alleles to improve cotton crop under ever increasing fiber demand and rapidly evolving climatic factors. Formerly, most of the improvement has been made in cotton germplasm by utilizing the genetic diversity of only cultivated types of species. The plenty of examples are reported for the utilization of wild cotton species in plant breeding despite of the fact of proven to be a novel genetic resource. The major hindrance was the transfer of genetic material which is now easier as compared to past due to advancement of gene transfer methods and technologies. Therefore, the conservation and utilization of cotton wild germplasm have gained much importance and is now become imperative to sustain the yield and quality of cotton fibers. This chapter highlights the background and potential of wild species of cotton to improve yield, quality, and adaptability of modern cultivars.

Plants when exposed to varying level of abiotic stress conditions undergo a large number of changes at the physiological and molecular level that considerably affects their growth and development. Abiotic stresses affect cellular homeostasis and enhance generation of reactive oxygen species which ultimately leads to earlier senescence in plants. In response to stress conditions, plants accumulate enhanced level of osmolytes in coordination with different stress signalling pathways. This chapter discusses interaction of osmolytes and different signalling molecules and their role for survival of plants under stress conditions. Studies related to biosynthesis pathways of osmolytes have helped to identify novel candidate genes that regulate the stress response in plants.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important food crops in the world, feeding nearly 50% of the world’s population. Rice blast, caused by filamentous ascomycete fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most destructive diseases affecting rice in all rice-growing countries and often causes serious damage to global rice production. Enhancing resistance of rice to M. oryzae is the most economical and effective approach for controlling rice blast. In conventional rice breeding, it takes approximately a decade to pyramid multiple blast resistance genes into a rice variety via crossing and backcrossing, while the high pathogenic variability in M. oryzae often leads to rapid breakdown of resistant cultivars. Breeding strategy using RNAi-based downregulation of rice transcription factor expression has been demonstrated to be an alternative approach for enhancing rice resistance to blast. However, the expression of RNAi transgenes varies in different transgenic lines; a large number of transgenic plants are required to identify candidates in which transgene is highly expressed over multiple generations. In addition, rice plants derived by RNAi methods are usually regarded as transgenic and are subjected to rigorous regulatory processes. In recent years, sequence-specific nucleases (SSNs) have been demonstrated to be powerful tools for the improvement of crops via gene-specific genome editing, and CRISPR/Cas9 is thought to be the most effective SSN for enhanced blast resistance.

Rice is a premier staple food that constitutes the bulk of the daily diet of the majority of people in Asia. Agricultural productivity must be boosted to support this huge demand for rice. However, production is jeopardized by soil salinity. Advances in whole-genome sequencing, marker-assisted breeding strategies, and targeted mutagenesis have substantially improved the toolbox of today's breeders. Given that salinity has a major influence on rice at both the seedling and reproductive stages, understanding and manipulating this trait will have an enormous impact on sustainable production. This article summarizes recent developments in the understanding of the mechanisms of salt tolerance and how state-of-the-art tools such as RNA guided CRISPR endonuclease technology including targeted mutagenesis or base and prime editing can help in gene discovery and functional analysis as well as in transferring favorable alleles into elite breeding material to speed the breeding of salt-tolerant rice cultivars.

Drought is one of the foremost threats for global cereal crop production with looming risks due to changing climatic scenarios. Among major cereals, rice wheat and maize are commonly grown worldwide for their importance as staple food as well as significance in fulfilling the nutritional requirements among the escalating human population. Drought being a complex trait is difficult to manage through conventional breeding approaches therefore, recent advances in genomics tools has resulted in precised and targeted identification of mechanisms underlying drought stress tolerance in cereals. Further, combination of customary breeding advances with the recent high throughput genomics technologies resulted in the popularization of genomics assisted breeding. There are various marker-assisted breeding (MAB) strategies to transfer or introgress trait of interest; these include marker-assisted selection (MAS); marker-assisted introgression (MAI), MA-backcrossing (MABC), MA-recurrent selection (MARS), MA-gene pyramiding (MAGP); genome-wide selection (GWS) and genomic selection (GS). In this review, recent advances for achieving drought stress tolerance in major cereals using genomics assisted breeding (GAB) has been discussed . We begin with the genetics of drought stress traits, MAB for abiotic stress tolerance with successful examples of mapped genomic regions for drought stress tolerance in rice, wheat and maize, respectively and finally MAI of genomic regions for improvement of drought tolerance in cereals. Further, in addition to MAB, genomic selection, an advanced molecular breeding technology, have pronounced potential to improve multiple traits simultaneously including drought tolerance in cereals. DOI.10.25174/2582-2675/2020/100821

Wheat is one of the most important crop among the prime cereals at the global level. In the present investigation, twenty-four bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes were evaluated to estimate the extent of genetic diversity. Analysis of variance revealed that genotypes possess significant genetic variability among all traits at p < 00.1. It was also observed that HPW 447 had recorded the highest value of 35.16 (q/ha) whereas, HPW446 exhibited the lowest value (23.78 q/ha) for the yield. A significant positive correlation was observed among yield and biological yield traits. On contrary, yield and days to maturity revealed a negative correlation. Days to heading revealed a significant positive correlation with plant height (0.40) and a negative correlation with biological yield (-0.45), respectively. Diversity analysis classified the evaluated wheat genotypes into four (4) distinct groups based on an index of similarity and dissimilarity of attributing traits. Group I and II have one genotype each viz., HS637 and HPW447, respectively whereas in third group 6 genotypes including HPW441, HPW444, HPW446, VL2030, HS634, and VL2025 are clustered together. The fourth group had two sub-groups. The first sub-group had five (5) genotypes and the second sub-group had eight (8) genotypes. The first three principal components based on the Euclidean similarity matrix explained 45.13, 17.85 and 14.71 percent of the total variation, respectively. It is concluded that these wheat genotypes (HS631, HPW 442, HPW 447, VL 2027 and VL2028) possess significant genetic variability and requisite potential for use in breeding as candidate wheat genotypes under temperate conditions. It is further suggested that by multivariate methods diverse parents can be identified with a scope in generating transgressive segregants for prospective breeding strategies in the improvement of the wheat crop.