Orphan crops: A genetic treasure trove for hunting stress tolerance genes

Abstract

Orphan crops, also known as minor crops, smart foods, and superfoods, have attracted great attention recently because of their unique ability to grow in resourcepoor marginal lands, and under harsh environmental conditions without any intensive agricultural care. These crops possess inherent tolerance against different abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, cold, and heat. Recent advancements in genomic resources and high-throughput phenotyping platforms have provided opportunities to explore the untapped potential of orphan crops to identify novel gene source(s) and mechanism(s) for developing abiotic stress-tolerant crops. Moreover, genomics-assisted investigations into the various physiological and molecular mechanism(s) could provide useful insights into stress tolerance mechanisms in these plants. Nevertheless, translating the hidden power of the tolerant gene pools from the orphan crops into major staple crops for enhancing their stress tolerance while maintaining yield is a challenging task. The contemporary tools of genomics can be used to unravel the secret of stress tolerance in orphan crops and employ these untapped genes for tailoring stress-tolerant crop varieties to ensure global food security in the era of climate change.

Cereal-legume intercropping: a smart review using topic modelling

“…However, before proposing and popularizing lupin and buckwheat in intercropping systems, additional research is necessary. The currently cultivated gene pools of orphan crops still contain variation in important interaction traits because this diversity has not been lost through monoculture breeding as is the case for the elite cultivars of major crops ( Kamenya et al., 2021 ; Kumar et al., 2023 ). This implies that there are significant opportunities for designing effective intercrop systems involving these underutilized crops.…”

Performance of Chickpea Varieties on Growth and Yield through Water Absorbents under Late Sown Condition

“…Variety of the crop decides its growth and yield potential under specific agro-climate along with efficient resource utilization (Maurya et al, 2022). The yield potential of different chickpea varieties may differ under different agro-climatic conditions because of their inherent capacity (Kumar et al, 2023). Variety selection is the most significant decision for a grower to maximize the crop yield by improving the fertilizer use efficiency and water use efficiency (Evans et al, 2018) Thus, adoption of improved cultivar is an important tool, which has geared production of chickpea in many states of the country.…”

The potential of integrative phenomics to harness underutilized crops for improving stress resilience

“…Central to this transformation is the application of alternative, accelerated, and sustainable approaches for the improvement and development of underutilized crops ( Hickey et al., 2019 ). Modern breeding strategies for major crops have widely integrated novel technologies, such as advanced phenotyping or genome-wide interactions, and even epigenomics within “beyond the gene” strategies ( Crisp et al., 2022 ) to speed up crop/genotype selection ( Hickey et al., 2019 ; Kumar et al., 2023 ). Deploying phenotyping at different scales has the potential to identify novel trait(s) components that can be targeted to accelerate crop improvement ( Araus and Cairns, 2014 ; Großkinsky et al., 2015b ; Zhao et al., 2019 ; Varshney et al., 2021 ).…”

“…Deploying phenotyping at different scales has the potential to identify novel trait(s) components that can be targeted to accelerate crop improvement ( Araus and Cairns, 2014 ; Großkinsky et al., 2015b ; Zhao et al., 2019 ; Varshney et al., 2021 ). There is even greater potential for these technologies when used to improve underutilized crops and support the agricultural transformation, as underutilized crops typically lack a biased breeding/selection history, i.e., they often exhibit a high genetic diversity and potential, and are usually better adapted to challenging environments ( Kumar et al., 2021 ; Kumar et al., 2023 ). To illustrate the application of an integrative phenomics approach we discuss how combining multi-omics and advanced phenotyping is being applied to the underutilized oilseed crop Camelina sativa (camelina, gold-of-pleasure, false flax) to facilitate the generation of climate-smart crops for future agricultural systems.…”