Advances in omics technology for improving crop yield and stress resilience

Abstract

Global climate change has emerged as the utmost environmental threat for agriculture. To maintain a sustainable food supply, climate-resilient high-yielding crop plants need to be developed. Over the last decade, understanding the complexity of genotype underlying agronomic traits has prompted the integrated application of various omics tools to address specific biological questions. A multi-parallel qualitative and quantitative differential analysis of gene transcripts, proteins and metabolites provides a comprehensive picture of the interconnected gene networks and cellular signalling cascade of regulatory and effector proteins. Genetic determinants of adaptation to environmental stress and yield enhancement traits are being determined and introgressed into elite accessions through either molecular breeding or genetic engineering approaches to obtain future crops with improved traits.