Application of genomics-assisted breeding for generation of climate resilient crops: progress and prospects

Chittaranjan Kole, Mehanathan Muthamilarasan, Robert Henry, David Edwards, Rishu Sharma, Michael Abberton, Jacqueline Batley, Alison Bentley, Michael Blakeney, John Bryant, Hongwei Cai, Mehmet Cakir, Leland J. Cseke, James Cockram, Antonio Costa de Oliveira, Ciro De Pace, Hannes Dempewolf, Shelby Ellison, Paul Gepts, Andy Greenland, Anthony Hall, Kiyosumi Hori, Stephen Hughes, Mike W. Humphreys, Massimo Iorizzo, Abdelbagi M. Ismail, Athole Marshall, Sean Mayes, Henry T. Nguyen, Francis C. Ogbonnaya, Rodomiro Ortiz, Andrew H. Paterson, Philipp W. Simon, Joe Tohme, Roberto Tuberosa, Babu Valliyodan, Rajeev K. Varshney, Stan D. Wullschleger, Masahiro Yano, Manoj Prasad

Climate change affects agricultural productivity worldwide. Increased prices of food commodities are the initial indication of drastic edible yield loss, which is expected to increase further due to global warming. This situation has compelled plant scientists to develop climate change-resilient crops, which can withstand broad-spectrum stresses such as drought, heat, cold, salinity, flood, submergence and pests, thus helping to deliver increased productivity. Genomics appears to be a promising tool for deciphering the stress responsiveness of crop species with adaptation traits or in wild relatives toward identifying underlying genes, alleles or quantitative trait loci. Molecular breeding approaches have proven helpful in enhancing the stress adaptation of crop plants, and recent advances in high-throughput sequencing and phenotyping platforms have transformed molecular breeding to genomics-assisted breeding (GAB). In view of this, the present review elaborates the progress and prospects of GAB for improving climate change resilience in crops, which is likely to play an ever increasing role in the effort to ensure global food security.