Utilizing the underutilized plant resources for development of life style foods: Putting nutrigenomics to use

Exploring physiological and molecular dynamics of drought stress responses in plants: challenges and future directions

Plants face multifactorial environmental stressors mainly due to global warming and climate change which affect their growth, metabolism, and productivity. Among them, is drought stress which alters intracellular water relations, photosynthesis, ion homeostasis and elevates reactive oxygen species which eventually reduce their growth and yields. In addition, drought alters soil physicochemical properties and beneficial microbiota which are critical for plant survival. Recent reports have shown that climate change is increasing the occurrence and intensity of drought in many regions of the world, which has become a primary concern in crop productivity, ecophysiology and food security. To develop ideas and strategies for protecting plants against the harmful effects of drought stress and meeting the future food demand under climatic calamities an in-depth understanding of molecular regulatory pathways governing plant stress responses is imperative. In parallel, more research is needed to understand how drought changes the features of soil, particularly microbiomes, as microorganisms can withstand drought stress faster than plants, which could assist them to recover. In this review we first discuss the effect of drought stress on plants, soil physicochemical properties and microbiomes. How drought stress affects plant microbe interactions and other microbe-driven beneficial traits was also highlighted. Next, we focused on how plants sense drought and undergo biochemical reprogramming from root to shoot to regulate diverse adaptive traits. For instance, the role of calcium (Ca2+), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and abscisic acid (ABA) in modulating different cellular responses like stomata functioning, osmotic adjustment, and other adaptive traits. We also provide an update on the role of different hormones in drought signaling and their crosstalk which allows plants to fine tune their responses during drought stress. Further, we discussed how recurrent drought exposure leads to the development of short-term memory in plants that allows them to survive future drought stresses. Lastly, we discussed the application of omics and biotechnological-based mitigating approaches to combat drought stress in sustainable agriculture. This review offers a deeper understanding of multiple factors that are related to drought stress in plants which can be useful for drought improvement programs.

Physicochemical, thermal, and functional properties of edible red algae (Gracilaria corticata)

In the present research, physicochemical, functional, and antioxidant properties of Gracilaria corticata (GC) powder were evaluated. The seaweed was found rich in protein (21%) carbohydrate (53.03%) and fat (7.8%). The inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry showed among the mineral's calcium (13.987 mg/g) and magnesium (7.48 mg/g) were found to be in higher percent. Three transition peaks were observed as the samples were subjected to DSC (-5.27°C for fat, 82.25°C for carbohydrates, and 98.79°C for proteins). The CHNS analysis demonstrated sulfur content (2.23%) depicts presence of sulfate polysaccharide confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra band at 1235 cm-1. A significant increase in the swelling capacity (14.26-21 mL/g) and water holding capacity (8.21-9.09 g/g) was observed as the temperature was increased from 25 to 80°C. On the contrary, oil holding capacity decreased significantly from 3.98 to 2.11 g/g with an increase in temperature. Nowadays, the sedentary lifestyle leads to chronic disease; however, the antioxidants derived from plants provide the biochemical defense from free radical formation. The marine-derived algal are good sources of nutrition and antioxidants, being natural sources of GC, the antioxidant activity exhibited by total phenolic content and α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl were found to be (11 mg GAE/g and 18%) inhibition, respectively. The principal phytochemicals profile was quantified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry as catechin, coumaric acid, phloroglucinol, and luteolin.

Buckwheat OMICS: present status and future prospects

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) is an underutilized resilient crop of North Western Himalayas belonging to the family Polygonaceae and is a source of essential nutrients and therapeutics. Common Buckwheat and Tatary Buckwheat are the two main cultivated species used as food. It is the only grain crop possessing rutin, an important metabolite with high nutraceutical potential. Due to its inherent tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses and a short life cycle, Buckwheat has been proposed as a model crop plant. Nutritional security is one of the major concerns, breeding for a nutrient-dense crop such as Buckwheat will provide a sustainable solution. Efforts toward improving Buckwheat for nutrition and yield are limited due to the lack of available: genetic resources, genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics. In order to harness the agricultural importance of Buckwheat, an integrated breeding and OMICS platforms needs to be established that can pave the way for a better understanding of crop biology and developing commercial varieties. This, coupled with the availability of the genome sequences of both Buckwheat species in the public domain, should facilitate the identification of alleles/QTLs and candidate genes. There is a need to further our understanding of the molecular basis of the genetic regulation that controls various economically important traits. The present review focuses on: the food and nutritional importance of Buckwheat, its various omics resources, utilization of omics approaches in understanding Buckwheat biology and, finally, how an integrated platform of breeding and omics will help in developing commercially high yielding nutrient rich cultivars in Buckwheat.

Prioritizing strategies for wheat biofortification: Inspiration from underutilized species

The relationship between malnutrition and climate change is still poorly understood but a comprehensive knowledge of their interactions is needed to address the global public health agenda. Limited studies have been conducted to propose robust and economic-friendly strategies to augment the food basket with underutilized species and biofortify the staples for nutritional security. Sea-buckthorn is a known "superfood" rich in vitamin C and iron content. It is found naturally in northern hemispherical temperate Eurasia and can be utilized as a model species for genetic biofortification in cash crops like wheat. This review focuses on the impacts of climate change on inorganic (iron, zinc) and organic (vitamin C) micronutrient malnutrition employing wheat as highly domesticated crop and processed food commodity. As iron and zinc are particularly stored in the outer aleurone and endosperm layers, they are prone to processing losses. Moreover, only 5% Fe and 25% Zn are bioavailable once consumed calling to enhance the bioavailability of these micronutrients. Vitamin C converts non-available iron (Fe3+) to available form (Fe2+) and helps in the synthesis of ferritin while protecting it from degradation at the same time. Similarly, reduced phytic acid content also enhances its bioavailability. This relation urges scientists to look for a common mechanism and genes underlying biosynthesis of vitamin C and uptake of Fe/Zn to biofortify these micronutrients concurrently. The study proposes to scale up the biofortification breeding strategies by focusing on all dimensions i.e., increasing micronutrient content and boosters (vitamin C) and simultaneously reducing anti-nutritional compounds (phytic acid). Mutually, this review identified that genes from the Aldo-keto reductase family are involved both in Fe/Zn uptake and vitamin C biosynthesis and can potentially be targeted for genetic biofortification in crop plants.

Metabolic-GWAS provides insights into genetic architecture of seed metabolome in buckwheat

BACKGROUND

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.), belonging to the Polygonaceae family, is an ancient pseudo-cereal with high nutritional and nutraceutical properties. Buckwheat proteins are gluten-free and show balanced amino acid and micronutrient profiles, with higher content of health-promoting bioactive flavonoids that make it a golden crop of the future. Plant metabolome is increasingly gaining importance as a crucial component to understand the connection between plant physiology and environment and as a potential link between the genome and phenome. However, the genetic architecture governing the metabolome and thus, the phenome is not well understood. Here, we aim to obtain a deeper insight into the genetic architecture of seed metabolome in buckwheat by integrating high throughput metabolomics and genotyping-by-sequencing applying an array of bioinformatics tools for data analysis.

RESULTS

High throughput metabolomic analysis identified 24 metabolites in seed endosperm of 130 diverse buckwheat genotypes. The genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) of these genotypes revealed 3,728,028 SNPs. The Genome Association and Prediction Integrated Tool (GAPIT) assisted in the identification of 27 SNPs/QTLs linked to 18 metabolites. Candidate genes were identified near 100 Kb of QTLs, providing insights into several metabolic and biosynthetic pathways.

CONCLUSIONS

We established the metabolome inventory of 130 germplasm lines of buckwheat, identified QTLs through marker trait association and positions of potential candidate genes. This will pave the way for future dissection of complex economic traits in buckwheat.

Shifting archetype to nature's hidden gems: from sources, purification to uncover the nutritional potential of bioactive peptides

Contemporary scientific findings revealed that our daily food stuffs are enriched by encrypted bioactive peptides (BPs), evolved by peptide linkage of amino acids or encrypted from the native protein structures. Remarkable to these BPs lies in their potential health benefiting biological activities to serve as nutraceuticals or a lead addition to the development of functional foods. The biological activities of BPs vary depending on the sequence as well as amino acid composition. Existing database records approximately 3000 peptide sequences which possess potential biological activities such as antioxidants, antihypertensive, antithrombotic, anti-adipogenics, anti-microbials, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancerous. The growing evidences suggest that BPs have very low toxicity, higher accuracy, less tissue accretion, and are easily degraded in the disposed environment. BPs are nowadays evolved as biologically active molecules with potential scope to reduce microbial contamination as well as ward off oxidation of foods, amend diverse range of human diseases to enhance the overall quality of human life. Against the clinical and health perspectives of BPs, this review aimed to elaborate current evolution of nutritional potential of BPs, studies pertaining to overcome limitations with respect to special focus on emerging extraction, protection and delivery tools of BPs. In addition, the nano-delivery mechanism of BP and its clinical significance is detailed. The aim of current review is to augment the research in the field of BPs production, identification, characterisation and to speed up the investigation of the incredible potentials of BPs as potential nutritional and functional food ingredient.

Unravelling rutin content of tartary buckwheat of north western Himalayas and insights into nucleotide polymorphisms in PAL gene to infer the associations with rutin biosynthesis

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) has immense nutritional and nutraceutical potential. All the plant parts of buckwheat possess various metabolites, such as rutin, quercetin, vitexin etc. The high content of rutin in this pseudo cereal crop strongly adapts it to grow under adverse environments. In the present study 50 germplasm lines of Fagopyrum tataricum were used for estimation of seed endosperm rutin content through HPLC. Furthermore, molecular analysis of PAL gene (Phenylalanine Ammonia Lyase), an upstream gene in rutin biosynthesis pathway was targeted for detection of SNPs to understand the variations in the concentrations of seed endosperm rutin content, among tartary buckwheat genotypes with highest and lowest seed endosperm rutin content. Three primer pairs were employed for amplification of PAL gene for F. tartaricum (covering whole gene) followed by sequencing. Rutin concentration in seed endosperm of F. tartaricum ranged from 194.86 to 1403.22 ppm with an average of 617.06 ppm. Highest rutin concentration was found in genotype BWZ90 and lowest in BWZ16. Significant variations were observed in the seed endosperm rutin content among the genotypes of tartary buckwheat. Furthermore, alignment of PAL gene sequences of genotypes with high seed endosperm rutin content and low seed endosperm rutin content revealed variations at 21 polymorphic sites. The amino acid sequences obtained from the nucleotide sequences were also aligned and the variations were detected at 19 positions. The putative protein structure showed conformational changes among predicted proteins from two contrasting genotypes for endosperm rutin content. We here established an inventory of seed endosperm rutin content of tartary buckwheat. This study also provided insights about role of these SNPs in rutin biosynthesis. Furthermore, this information can be used for breeding buckwheat for high metabolite contents.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-022-03218-y.