ABSTRACT
The world is facing rapid climate change and a fast-growing global population. It is believed that the world population will be 9.7 billion in 2050. However, recent agriculture production is not enough to feed the current population of 7.9 billion people, which is causing a huge hunger problem. Therefore, feeding the 9.7 billion population in 2050 will be a huge target. Climate change is becoming a huge threat to global agricultural production, and it is expected to become the worst threat to it in the upcoming years. Keeping this in view, it is very important to breed climate-resilient plants. Legumes are considered an important pillar of the agriculture production system and a great source of high-quality protein, minerals, and vitamins. During the last two decades, advancements in OMICs technology revolutionized plant breeding and emerged as a crop-saving tool in wake of the climate change. Various OMICs approaches like Next-Generation sequencing (NGS), Transcriptomics, Proteomics, and Metabolomics have been used in legumes under abiotic stresses. The scientific community successfully utilized these platforms and investigated the Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL), linked markers through genome-wide association studies, and developed KASP markers that can be helpful for the marker-assisted breeding of legumes. Gene-editing techniques have been successfully proven for soybean, cowpea, chickpea, and model legumes such as Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus. A number of efforts have been made to perform gene editing in legumes. Moreover, the scientific community did a great job of identifying various genes involved in the metabolic pathways and utilizing the resulted information in the development of climate-resilient legume cultivars at a rapid pace. Keeping in view, this review highlights the contribution of OMICs approaches to abiotic stresses in legumes. We envisage that the presented information will be helpful for the scientific community to develop climate-resilient legume cultivars.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Hollyhock (Alcea rosea) is an ornamental plant belonging to the Malvaceae family and has a remarkable aesthetic and medicinal value. A number of distinct infectious entity including fungi, nematode, bacteria and most importantly both single and double stranded DNA and RNA viruses are reported from infected hollyhock plant. Begomoviruses, the well reputed member of the family Geminiviridae infected the hollyhock recently with a new hollyhock vein yellowing virus and in the present study it infected the hollyhock plant with Cotton leaf curl Multan virus (CLCuMV) which cause the disease of leaf curling. METHODS AND RESULTS: The symptomatic leaves of the hollyhock plants were collected based on the characteristic symptoms of leaf curling, puckering as well as vein thickening. DNA was extracted by using the recommended 2× CTAB protocol and PCR technique was optimized for the detection of begomovirus followed by sequencing. The data of disease incidence of infection location wise was collected based on the positive results of PCR amplification. Virus free whitefly collected from cotton field and feed on infected hollyhock plant in cage for few days then used for the transmission study of begomovirus on healthy hollyhock plants. Results of PCR amplification indicated that the primers Av/Ac core, Begomo 01/02, and CLCV 01/02 showed the bands of 579 bp, 2.8 kb and 1.1 kb respectively. The betasatellite was amplified by using beta01/02 and CLCuMuBF11/R33, which showed the band of 1400 bp and 481 bp. Disease incidence and Transmission study confirmed the begomovirus in hollyhock plants at molecular level. The sequence obtained with Av/Ac core primers showed the 99% identity with Cotton leaf curl Multan virus-Rajasthan strain and betasatellite primers showed 98% identity with Cotton leaf curl Multan betasatellite. CONCLUSION: Hollyhock plants infected by CLCuMV and associated betasatellite has been reported as a possible source of virus inoculum from Pakistan. These findings extend the range of Begomoviruses and betasatellites known to infect A. rosea and highlight this hollyhock species as an important reservoir of agriculturally important Begomoviruses and betasatellites.
