Prospects to improve the nutritional quality of crops

A growing world population as well as the need to enhance sustainability and health create challenges for crop breeding. To address these challenges, not only quantitative but also qualitative improvements are needed, especially regarding the macro- and micronutrient composition and content. In this review, we describe different examples of how the nutritional quality of crops and the bioavailability of individual nutrients can be optimised. We focus on increasing protein content, the use of alternative protein crops and improving protein functionality. Furthermore, approaches to enhance the content of vitamins and minerals as well as healthy specialised metabolites and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are considered. In addition, methods to reduce antinutrients and toxins are presented. These approaches could help to decrease the ‘hidden hunger’ caused by micronutrient deficiencies. Furthermore, a more diverse crop range with improved nutritional profile could help to shift to healthier and more sustainable plant-based diets

Prospects to improve the nutritional quality of crops

A growing world population as well as the need to enhance sustainability and health create challenges for crop breeding. To address these challenges, not only quantitative but also qualitative improvements are needed, especially regarding the macro- and micronutrient composition and content. In this review, we describe different examples of how the nutritional quality of crops and the bioavailability of individual nutrients can be optimised. We focus on increasing protein content, the use of alternative protein crops and improving protein functionality. Furthermore, approaches to enhance the content of vitamins and minerals as well as healthy specialised metabolites and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are considered. In addition, methods to reduce antinutrients and toxins are presented. These approaches could help to decrease the ‘hidden hunger’ caused by micronutrient deficiencies. Furthermore, a more diverse crop range with improved nutritional profile could help to shift to healthier and more sustainable plant-based diets

The tomato gene Sw5 is a member of the coiled coil, nucleotide binding, leucine-rich repeat class of plant resistance genes and confers resistance to TSWV in tobacco

Tomato spotted wilt virus is an important threat to tomato production worldwide. A single dominant resistance gene locus, Sw5, originating from Lycopersicon peruvianum, has been identified and introgressed in cultivated tomato plants. Here we present the genomic organization of a 35250 bp fragment of a BAC clone overlapping the Sw5 locus. Two highly homologous (95%) resistance gene candidates were identified within 40 kb of the CT220 marker. The genes, tentatively named Sw5-a and Sw5-b, encode proteins of 1245 and 1246 amino acids, respectively, and are members of the coiled-coil, nucleotide-binding-ARC, leucine-rich repeat group of resistance gene candidates. Promoter and terminator regions of the genes are also highly homologous. Both genes significantly resemble the tomato nematode and aphid resistance gene Mi and, to a lesser extent, Pseudomonas syringae resistance gene Prf. Transformation of Nicotiana tabacum cv. SR1 plants revealed that the Sw5-b gene, but not the Sw5-a gene, is necessary and sufficient for conferring resistance against tomato spotted wilt virus.

CropBooster‐P:Towards a roadmap for plant research to future‐proof crops in Europe

The world needs more than double its current agricultural productivity by 2050 to produce enough food and feed, as well as to provide feedstock for the bioeconomy. These future increases will not only need to be sustainable but also need to compromise the nutritional quality, and ideally also need to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration to help mitigate the consequences of global climate change. These challenges could be tackled by developing and integrating new future‐proof crops into our food system. The H2020 CropBooster‐P project sets out plant‐centered breeding approaches guided by a broad socio‐economic and societal support. First, the potential approaches for breeding crops with sustainably increased yields adapted to the future climate of Europe are identified. These crop‐breeding options are subsequently prioritized and their adoption considered by experts across the agri‐food system and the wider public, taking into account environmental, economic and other technical criteria. In this way, a specific research agenda to future‐proof our crops was developed, supported by an eventual implementation plan

Cross-Species Bacterial Artificial Chromosome–Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization Painting of the Tomato and Potato Chromosome 6 Reveals Undescribed Chromosomal Rearrangements

Ongoing genomics projects of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and potato (S. tuberosum) are providing unique tools for comparative mapping studies in Solanaceae. At the chromosomal level, bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) can be positioned on pachytene complements by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on homeologous chromosomes of related species. Here we present results of such a cross-species multicolor cytogenetic mapping of tomato BACs on potato chromosomes 6 and vice versa. The experiments were performed under low hybridization stringency, while blocking with Cot-100 was essential in suppressing excessive hybridization of repeat signals in both within-species FISH and cross-species FISH of tomato BACs. In the short arm we detected a large paracentric inversion that covers the whole euchromatin part with breakpoints close to the telomeric heterochromatin and at the border of the short arm pericentromere. The long arm BACs revealed no deviation in the colinearity between tomato and potato. Further comparison between tomato cultivars Cherry VFNT and Heinz 1706 revealed colinearity of the tested tomato BACs, whereas one of the six potato clones (RH98-856-18) showed minor putative rearrangements within the inversion. Our results present cross-species multicolor BAC–FISH as a unique tool for comparative genetic studies across Solanum species