Tapping into the potential of okra ( spp.) in Africa: integrating value-added traits into breeding.

Okra is a nutritious vegetable of global significance. This crop serves various purposes and presents numerous untapped opportunities. However, several challenges hinder Africa from fully harnessing okra's economic and nutritional benefits, including pest and disease pressures, salinity and cold stress, weak seed systems, insufficient market knowledge, and a lack of value addition.

Agronomic Performance and Stability of Vegetable Amaranth (.) Genotypes in Benin.

Amaranth is a vegetable and grain crop with the potential to contribute to nutrition security and income generation. However, amaranth production in Benin faces several constraints, including the limited availability of improved varieties and access to high-quality seed. The study aimed to (i) identify top-performing varieties based on agronomic traits and (ii) identify farmer-preferred amaranth traits and genotypes to guide variety recommendations for release.

Association analyses reveal both anthropic and environmental selective events during eggplant domestication.

Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is one of the four most important Solanaceous crops, widely cultivated and consumed in Asia, the Mediterranean basin, and Southeast Europe. We studied the genome-wide association of historical genebank phenotypic data on a genotyped worldwide collection of 3449 eggplant accessions. Overall, 334 significant associations for key agronomic traits were detected.

Molecular markers associated with resistance to squash leaf curl China virus and tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus in tropical pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duchesne ex Poir.) breeding line AVPU1426.

Virus diseases are a major production constraint for pumpkin. Recessive resistance to squash leaf curl China virus and tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus has been mapped in Cucurbita moschata (Duchesne ex Poir.) breeding line AVPU1426 to chromosomes 7 and 8, respectively.

Genetics, genomics, and breeding of black gram [ (L.) Hepper].

Black gram [ (L.) Hepper] is a highly nutritious grain legume crop, mainly grown in South and Southeast Asia, with the largest area in India, where the crop is challenged by several biotic and abiotic stresses leading to significant yield losses. Improving genetic gains to increase on-farm yields is the primary goal of black gram breeding programs.

Plant Sample Collection and Shipment for Multi-omic Analyses and Phytosanitary Evaluation.

Plant sample preparation for analyses is a fundamental step in high-throughput omics strategies. Especially for plant metabolomics, quenching of hydrolytic enzymes able to affect metabolite concentrations is crucial for the accuracy of results. Given that DNA is usually less labile than metabolites, most sampling and shipment procedures able to preserve the metabolome are also suitable for preventing the degradation of plant DNA or of DNA of pathogens in the plant tissue.

Current status, breeding strategies and future prospects for managing chilli leaf curl virus disease and associated begomoviruses in Chilli ( spp.).

Chilli leaf curl virus disease caused by begomoviruses, has emerged as a major threat to global chilli production, causing severe yield losses and economic harm. Begomoviruses are a highly successful and emerging group of plant viruses that are primarily transmitted by whiteflies belonging to the complex. The most effective method for mitigating chilli leaf curl virus disease losses is breeding for host resistance to .

Corrigendum: Molecular markers associated to two non-allelic genic male sterility genes in peppers ( L.).

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.

Analysis of >3400 worldwide eggplant accessions reveals two independent domestication events and multiple migration-diversification routes.

Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is an important Solanaceous crop, widely cultivated and consumed in Asia, the Mediterranean basin, and Southeast Europe. Its domestication centers and migration and diversification routes are still a matter of debate. We report the largest georeferenced and genotyped collection to this date for eggplant and its wild relatives, consisting of 3499 accessions from seven worldwide genebanks, originating from 105 countries in five continents.

Critical Review of the Increasing Complexity of Access and Benefit-Sharing Policies of Genetic Resources for Genebank Curators and Plant Breeders-A Public and Private Sector Perspective.

Plant breeders develop competitive, high-yielding, resistant crop varieties that can cope with the challenges of biotic stresses and tolerate abiotic stresses, resulting in nutritious food for consumers worldwide. To achieve this, plant breeders need continuous and easy access to plant genetic resources (PGR) for trait screening, to generate new diversity that can be built into newly improved varieties. International agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and the Nagoya Protocol recognised the sovereign rights of countries over their genetic resources.

Multi-environment association study highlights candidate genes for robust agronomic quantitative trait loci in a novel worldwide Capsicum core collection.

Investigating crop diversity through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on core collections helps in deciphering the genetic determinants of complex quantitative traits. Using the G2P-SOL project world collection of 10 038 wild and cultivated Capsicum accessions from 10 major genebanks, we assembled a core collection of 423 accessions representing the known genetic diversity. Since complex traits are often highly dependent upon environmental variables and genotype-by-environment (G × E) interactions, multi-environment GWAS with a 10 195-marker genotypic matrix were conducted on a highly diverse subset of 350 Capsicum annuum accessions, extensively phenotyped in up to six independent trials from five climatically differing countries.

Demographic history and distinct selection signatures of two domestication genes in mungbean.

Domestication is the long and complex process underlying the evolution of crops, in which artificial directional selection transformed wild progenitors into the desired form, affecting genomic variation and leaving traces of selection at targeted loci. However, whether genes controlling important domestication traits follow the same evolutionary pattern expected under the standard selective sweep model remains unclear. With whole-genome resequencing of mungbean (Vigna radiata), we investigated this issue by resolving its global demographic history and targeted dissection of the molecular footprints of genes underlying 2 key traits representing different stages of domestication.

Environment as a limiting factor of the historical global spread of mungbean.

While the domestication process has been investigated in many crops, the detailed route of cultivation range expansion and factors governing this process received relatively little attention. Here, using mungbean ( var. ) as a test case, we investigated the genomes of more than 1000 accessions to illustrate climatic adaptation's role in dictating the unique routes of cultivation range expansion.

Genome wide association analysis for grain micronutrients and anti-nutritional traits in mungbean [ (L.) R. Wilczek] using SNP markers.

Mungbean is an important food grain legume for human nutrition and nutritional food due to its nutrient-dense seed, liked palatability, and high digestibility. However, anti-nutritional factors pose a significant risk to improving nutritional quality for bio-fortification. In the present study, genetic architecture of grain micronutrients (grain iron and zinc concentration) and anti-nutritional factors (grain phytic acid and tannin content) in association mapping panel of 145 diverse mungbean were evaluated.

Modeling of Flowering Time in with Artificial Image Objects, Convolutional Neural Network and Random Forest.

Flowering time is an important target for breeders in developing new varieties adapted to changing conditions. In this work, a new approach is proposed in which the SNP markers influencing time to flowering in mung bean are selected as important features in a random forest model. The genotypic and weather data are encoded in artificial image objects, and a model for flowering time prediction is constructed as a convolutional neural network.

Genetic and Molecular Mechanisms Conferring Heat Stress Tolerance in Tomato Plants.

Climate change is a major threat to global food security. Changes in climate can directly impact food systems by reducing the production and genetic diversity of crops and their wild relatives, thereby restricting future options for breeding improved varieties and reducing the ability to adapt crops to future challenges. The global surface temperature is predicted to rise by an average of 0.

Global range expansion history of pepper ( spp.) revealed by over 10,000 genebank accessions.

Genebanks collect and preserve vast collections of plants and detailed passport information, with the aim of preserving genetic diversity for conservation and breeding. Genetic characterization of such collections has the potential to elucidate the genetic histories of important crops, use marker-trait associations to identify loci controlling traits of interest, search for loci undergoing selection, and contribute to genebank management by identifying taxonomic misassignments and duplicates. We conducted a genomic scan with genotyping by sequencing (GBS) derived single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 10,038 pepper ( spp.

Applications and Major Achievements of Genome Editing in Vegetable Crops: A Review.

The emergence of genome-editing technology has allowed manipulation of DNA sequences in genomes to precisely remove or replace specific sequences in organisms resulting in targeted mutations. In plants, genome editing is an attractive method to alter gene functions to generate improved crop varieties. Genome editing is thought to be simple to use and has a lower risk of off-target effects compared to classical mutation breeding.

Assessment of root phenotypes in mungbean mini-core collection (MMC) from the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC) Taiwan.

Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) is an important food grain legume, but its production capacity is threatened by global warming, which can intensify plant stress and limit future production. Identifying new variation of key root traits in mungbean will provide the basis for breeding lines with effective root characteristics for improved water uptake to mitigate heat and drought stress.

Dynamical climatic model for time to flowering in Vigna radiata.

Background: Phenology data collected recently for about 300 accessions of Vigna radiata (mungbean) is an invaluable resource for investigation of impacts of climatic factors on plant development.

Results: We developed a new mathematical model that describes the dynamic control of time to flowering by daily values of maximal and minimal temperature, precipitation, day length and solar radiation. We obtained model parameters by adaptation to the available experimental data.

A SNP-Based Genome-Wide Association Study to Mine Genetic Loci Associated to Salinity Tolerance in Mungbean ( L.).

Mungbean ( (L.) R. Wilzeck var.