Browsing by Author "Foyer, Christine H."

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Can we secure food and nutrition through crop innovation ?
(John Wiley & Sons, 2025) Pareek, Ashwani; Gupta, Kapuganti Jagadis; Singla-Pareek, Sneh L.; Foyer, Christine H.
Climate change poses an existential challenge to global food and nutritional security by disrupting agricultural systems, altering crop yields, and affecting the availability of essential nutrients. Increasing temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns, and a greater frequency of extreme weather events negatively impact crop productivity, threatening the stability of food supply chains. Additionally, climate-induced stresses such as drought, salinity, and heat not only reduce yield quantity but also affect the nutritional composition of staple crops, potentially exacerbating micronutrient deficiencies. Addressing these challenges necessitates a multi-faceted approach, integrating genetic improvements, sustainable agricultural practices, and the development of climate-resilient crops that can thrive under adverse conditions. This special issue on ‘Food and Nutritional Security' brings together state-of-the-art reviews by experts and cutting-edge studies that highlight the importance of current research in crop science. The reviews and case studies that are contained in this volume provide a concise overview of the field, acknowledging current gaps in knowledge, while examining the potential of genetic innovations, sustainable agronomic practices, and biotechnological advancements in addressing food security challenges.
Co-overexpression of SWEET sucrose transporters modulates sucrose synthesis and defence responses to enhance immunity against bacterial blight in rice
(John Wiley & Sons, 2024) Singh, Jitender; James, Donald; Das, Shubhashis; Patel, Manish Kumar; Sutar, Rashmi Ranjan; Achary, V. Mohan Murali; Goel, Naveen; Gupta, Kapuganti Jagadis; Reddy, Malireddy K.; Jha, Gopaljee; Sonti, Ramesh V.; Foyer, Christine H.; Thakur, Jitendra K.; Tripathy, Baishnab C.
Enhancing carbohydrate export from source to sink tissues is considered to be a realistic approach for improving photosynthetic efficiency and crop yield. The rice sucrose transporters OsSUT1, OsSWEET11a and OsSWEET14 contribute to sucrose phloem loading and seed filling. Crucially, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) infection in rice enhances the expression of OsSWEET11a and OsSWEET14 genes, and causes leaf blight. Here we show that co‐overexpression of OsSUT1, OsSWEET11a and OsSWEET14 in rice reduced sucrose synthesis and transport leading to lower growth and yield but reduced susceptibility to Xoo relative to controls. The immunity‐related hypersensitive response (HR) was enhanced in the transformed lines as indicated by the increased expression of defence genes, higher salicylic acid content and presence of HR lesions on the leaves. The results suggest that the increased expression of OsSWEET11a and OsSWEET14 in rice is perceived as a pathogen (Xoo) attack that triggers HR and results in constitutive activation of plant defences that are related to the signalling pathways of pathogen starvation. These findings provide a mechanistic basis for the trade‐off between plant growth and immunity because decreased susceptibility against Xoo compromised plant growth and yield.
Gaining acceptance of novel plant breeding technologies
(Elsevier B.V., 2021) Anders, Sven; Cowling, Wallace; Pareek, Ashwani; Gupta, Kapuganti Jagadis; Singla-Pareek, Sneh L.; Foyer, Christine H.
Ensuring the sustainability of agriculture under climate change has led to a surge in alternative strategies for crop improvement. Advances in integrated crop breeding, social acceptance, and farm-level adoption are crucial to address future challenges to food security. Societal acceptance can be slow when consumers do not see the need for innovation or immediate benefits. We consider how best to address the issue of social licence and harmonised governance for novel gene technologies in plant breeding. In addition, we highlight optimised breeding strategies that will enable long-term genetic gains to be achieved. Promoted by harmonised global policy change, innovative plant breeding can realise high and sustainable productivity together with enhanced nutritional traits.
Metabolism and signalling in pea (Pisum sativum) leaves exposed to drought and subsequent recovery
(John Wiley & Sons, 2026) Pandey, Jayendra; Mantena, Chakradhar; Kumari, Aprajita; Singh, Pooja; Foyer, Christine H.; Gupta, Kapuganti Jagadis; Subramanyam, Rajagopal
Uncovering the metabolic and molecular mechanisms involved in plant responses to drought and subsequent recovery, is essential to identify drought tolerance mechanisms that can be used to improve crop plants. Here we combine plant physiology and biochemistry, with gene expression, quantitative proteomics and metabolite profiling to identify the genetic and metabolic networks that operate in plants experiencing and recovering from drought. Network analysis of transcripts, proteins and metabolites revealed that certain biological processes such as the tricarboxylic acid cycle and lipid metabolism had a strong impact on the overall control of leaf responses to drought and recovery. The stimulation of carbohydrate oxidation pathways is demonstrated to be a key node in the generation of energy and precursors required to support diverse survival pathways of defence.
The multifaceted metabolic role of lactate dehydrogenase in submergence tolerance
(John Wiley & Sons, 2026) Swain, Jagannath; Fernie, Alisdair R.; Foyer, Christine H.; Gupta, Kapuganti Jagadis
In this commentary, we highlight the importance of LDH in the modulation of several crucial metabolic pathways for submergence tolerance in rice. Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH), a tetrameric enzyme that catalyses the reversible interconversion of pyruvate and lactate during fermentation induced by hypoxia in plants and animals. Catalysing an important rate-limiting step in the glyco-metabolism pathway, the increased expression and activity of this enzyme are required for the maintenance of glycolysis under hypoxia, protecting energy homeostasis by maintaining NADH/NAD+ ratios (Ha et al. 2024). Recent evidence demonstrated the importance of LDH in the modulation of several metabolic pathways for submergence tolerance in rice (Chatterjee et al. 2025).
Nitrate, NO and ROS signaling in stem cell homeostasis
(Cell Press, 2018) Wany, Aakanksha; Foyer, Christine H.; Gupta, Kapuganti Jagadis
Shoot and root growth is facilitated by stem cells in the shoot and root apical meristems (SAM and RAM). Recent reports have demonstrated a close link between nitrogen nutrition, nitric oxide (NO), and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the regulation of SAM and RAM functions in response to nitrogen availability.
The power of the phytoglobin-NO cycle in the regulation of nodulation and symbiotic nitrogen fixation
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2020) Singh, Pooja; Kumari, Aprajita; Foyer, Christine H.; Gupta, Kapuganti Jagadis
Recent years have seen a large increase in our understanding of the multifaceted roles of nitric oxide (NO) in plant biology, particularly in the regulation of symbiotic interactions with soil microorganisms. NO serves key functions in the initiation and maintenance of legume–rhizobium symbiosis. Extensive molecular crosstalk between the host legume and the soil rhizobium results in the initiation of symbiosis and the establishment of a highly specialized organ called the nodule, which provides the conditions required for bacterial nitrogen fixation. Within the nodules, the rhizobium bacteria are housed in bacteroids, in which the oxygen is maintained at very low levels allowing the bacterial nitrogenase to function. This enzyme is oxygen sensitive (half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) oxygen for nitrogenase is 2.9 µM; Goldberg et al., 1987). Hence, a key feature of the nodule is the maintenance of a strong oxygen diffusion barrier, in which leghaemoglobin is used to transfer oxygen to the plant mitochondria to sustain respiration.
Raising crops for dry and saline lands: Challenges and the way forward
(John Wiley & Sons, 2022) Singh, Anil Kumar; Gupta, Kapuganti Jagadis; Singla-Pareek, Sneh L.; Foyer, Christine H.; Pareek, Ashwani
Plants are continuously exposed to various environmental stresses. Of these, soil salinity and drought are considered to be the most important environmental stresses globally because they have a negative impact on plant growth and crop productivity. Drought and salinity thus threaten global food and nutritional security. The estimated annual global loss in crop production due to saline soils in irrigated areas is approximately US$27.3 billion (Qadir et al., 2014). Drought caused direct losses to the developing world's agriculture in the order of US$ 29 billion between 2005 and 2015 (FAO, 2018). Conversely, there is an increasing pressure to enhance agricultural production by 70% to feed a predicted increase in the world population of 9.7 billion by 2050. Hence, agriculture systems must become extremely productive and less wasteful throughout the world. Achieving this goal will be extremely challenging under the prevailing environmental conditions coupled with reductions in arable land and freshwater availability, together with climate change-induced environmental uncertainties. Over the past six decades, classical plant breeding technologies have played a major role in increasing crop performance and productivity. However, the consensus of scientific opinion is that most major crops have reached their maximum yield potential. Hence, the challenge for plant science is to develop improved crop varieties that can achieve sustainable higher yields with limited soil water availability and on saline soils. Recent developments in gene editing and innovative plant breeding technologies are crucial to the nature-based roadmap for sustainable agriculture intensification and climate resilience.