Composition of canola seed sprouts fermented by Aureobasidium pullulans, Neurospora crassa, and Trichoderma reesei under submerged-state fermentation

Metabolomics has become an integral part of a broad understanding of the plant phenome. It involves large-scale quantitative and qualitative analyses of metabolites present in plant tissues. Metabolomics can generally be divided into targeted and non-targeted analyses. Every year, new tools are developed and used to better understand unknown metabolomes. These tools help to identify new metabolites but also increase our understanding of biosynthetic pathways that were inexplicable using only genomics data. This article reviews existing and new metabolomics tools and their integrated utility in the discovery of plant biosynthetic genes. It covers literature and data from approximately 2010–19. This article provides a basis for an average reader to understand how plant metabolites are identified, validated, and used to understand their biosynthetic origin using integrated genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics.

Modern Plant Metabolomics for the Discovery and Characterization of Natural Products and Their Biosynthetic Genes

Oilseed crops belonging to various families are important as they are used as both oil source and raw material in various industries. Currently, about 40 different oilseed crops are consumed, but only a few have commercial significance. The most preferred oilseed crops are soybean, sunflower, groundnut, sesame, and castor since they are renewable energy sources and associated with power generation. Sunflower, soybean, and canola crops provide reduction in irrigation as well as in input costs. The oil obtained from the seeds is divided into three major groups. Among them, annual oilseeds include soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, and groundnut. Perennial tree crops create a group that includes oil palm and coconut. Finally, the last group includes cotton and corn. Oilseeds other than these are also used as animal nutrients in addition to human food ingredient, although they have a small share in trade. This chapter is dealing with the production and trade of oil crops, and their contribution to the world economy.

Production and Trade of Oil Crops, and Their Contribution to the World Economy

Mustard, known as Brassica, is a significant crop utilized mainly for its oil contents. Owing to its extensive use, it has been cultivated and studied since many past years. Scientists have been thriving to improve its quality by intensifying the experimentation specially related to its genetic setup. In this regard, gene, genomics and the sequencing are generated with the help of advance techniques. This chapter will review a number of gene influencing factors, the process for better sequences, alteration of genes and the basic genomics present in brassica family. Genome, phylogeny, karyotypes and identification of the variation causing loci are major factors identifying the actual potential of a plant species. These insights can be achieved through study of simple phenology, photosynthesis, apomixes, transformation abilities and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses or can be achieved through mapping, marker-assisted breeding, interspecific hybridization between genotypes and molecular linkage maps. This study will provide a comprehensive knowledge about brassica genomic providing basic scientific background. This knowledge is significant for identification of genetics/genomics tools which may help in improving the quality parameters of mustard. It will also be helpful for scientists to improve the genetic tools to study genomics at molecular level.

Genomics of Mustard Crops

Technological advancement has changed the future of plants, if we are talking about the use and applications of molecular marker systems. Different types of methods and use of molecular markers have been developed, which have geared advancements in sequencing technologies for crop improvement. These methods are now being applied to a range of crops and have good potential particularly for oilseed crops in terms of both overall food and non-food yield and the nutritional and technical quality of the oils. In this context, the targets include increasing overall oil yield and its quality, which covers a range of parameters. This chapter introduces some recent techniques in molecular markers and their recent applications in plant breeding, with special reference to oilseed brassicas. The progress made in molecular plant breeding, genomic selection and genome editing—such as marker-assisted selection, next-generation sequencing and transgenesis—has contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of molecular breeding techniques and provided deeper insights into the diversity of techniques available and, most importantly, their efficient utilization in oleiferous crops. Genotyping by sequencing and association mapping based on next-generation sequencing technologies have facilitated the identification of novel genetic markers. Use of informational RNA technology and Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes (TILLING) techniques have opened the gateway for deciphering complex and unstructured populations. Remarkable progress in producing such oils in commercial crops by utilizing novel techniques has been made in recent years, with several varieties being released or at advanced stages of development.

S. K. Rai

Papers

Use of Modern Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Tools to Improve the Quality Value of Oilseed Brassicas