Developing future heat-resilient vegetable crops

Abstract

Climate change seriously impacts global agriculture, with rising temperatures directly affecting the yield. Vegetables are an essential part of daily human consumption and thus have importance among all agricultural crops. The human population is increasing daily, so there is a need for alternative ways which can be helpful in maximizing the harvestable yield of vegetables. The increase in temperature directly affects the plants’ biochemical and molecular processes; having a significant impact on quality and yield. Breeding for climate-resilient crops with good yields takes a long time and lots of breeding efforts. However, with the advent of new omics technologies, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, the efficiency and efficacy of unearthing information on pathways associated with high-temperature stress resilience has improved in many of the vegetable crops. Besides omics, the use of genomics-assisted breeding and new breeding approaches such as gene editing and speed breeding allow creation of modern vegetable cultivars that are more resilient to high temperatures. Collectively, these approaches will shorten the time to create and release novel vegetable varieties to meet growing demands for productivity and quality. This review discusses the effects of heat stress on vegetables and highlights recent research with a focus on how omics and genome editing can produce temperature-resilient vegetables more efficiently and faster.

Assessment of proline function in higher plants under extreme temperatures

“…2011; Saeed et al . 2023). Moreover, HS also reduces cell size, growth, divisions and, ultimately, death, thereby causing significant reductions in growth and biomass (Srivastava et al .…”

“…2022a; Saeed et al . 2023). Increasing temperatures also reduce photosynthesis and increase respiration, which in turn reduces assimilation and causes substantial yield loss (Hassan et al .…”

“…2022; Saeed et al . 2023). Additionally, HS reduces carbohydrate metabolism, which disrupts reproductive events, such as flower development, fruit set, seed development that lead to yield loss in a wide variety of crops (Huang et al .…”

“…Germination is essential for plant life, and HS exposure substantially reduces germination by disrupting enzyme activity as well as uptake and availability of water and nutrients (Essemine et al 2010;Giordano et al 2021;Malabarba et al 2021;Raza et al 2022a). Heat stress also reduces root growth, seedling growth and triggers significant yield losses (Kumar et al 2011;Saeed et al 2023). Moreover, HS also reduces cell size, growth, divisions and, ultimately, death, thereby causing significant reductions in growth and biomass (Srivastava et al 2012).…”

“…Like most stresses, extreme temperatures (cold stress, CS; heat stress, HS) influence plant growth and development individually or in combination with other stresses. Ultimately, they can cause oxidative damage, cellular injury, and even cell death after long-term exposure, imposing significant threats to food security worldwide (Basavaraj & Rane 2020;Giordano et al 2021;Raza et al 2021;Raza et al 2022a;Sharma et al 2022a;Saeed et al 2023).…”