Recent developments in multi-omics and breeding strategies for abiotic stress tolerance in maize (Zea mays L.)

Muhammad Qudrat Ullah Farooqi; Ghazala Nawaz; Shabir Hussain Wani; Jeet Ram Choudhary; Maneet Rana; Rameswar Prasad Sah; Muhammad Afzal; Zahra Zahra; Showkat Ahmad Ganie; Ali Razzaq; Vincent Pamugas Reyes; Eman A Mahmoud; Hosam O Elansary; Tarek K Zin El-Abedin; Kadambot H M Siddique

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.965878

Recent developments in multi-omics and breeding strategies for abiotic stress tolerance in maize (Zea mays L.)

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Sep 23:13:965878. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.965878. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Muhammad Qudrat Ullah Farooqi¹, Ghazala Nawaz², Shabir Hussain Wani³, Jeet Ram Choudhary⁴, Maneet Rana⁵, Rameswar Prasad Sah⁶, Muhammad Afzal⁷, Zahra Zahra⁸, Showkat Ahmad Ganie⁹, Ali Razzaq¹⁰, Vincent Pamugas Reyes¹¹, Eman A Mahmoud¹², Hosam O Elansary^{13

14

15}, Tarek K Zin El-Abedin¹⁶, Kadambot H M Siddique¹

Affiliations

¹ The UWA Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
² Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Kohat, Pakistan.
³ Mountain Research Centre for Field Crops, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar, India.
⁴ Division of Genetics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.
⁵ Division of Crop Improvement, ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, India.
⁶ Division of Crop Improvement, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, India.
⁷ College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
⁹ Department of Biotechnology, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, India.
¹⁰ Agronomy Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
¹¹ Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Japan.
¹² Department of Food Industries, Faculty of Agriculture, Damietta University, Damietta, Egypt.
¹³ Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁴ Floriculture, Ornamental Horticulture, and Garden Design Department, Faculty of Agriculture (El-Shatby), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
¹⁵ Department of Geography, Environmental Management, and Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
¹⁶ Department of Agriculture & Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture (El-Shatby), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.

Abstract

High-throughput sequencing technologies (HSTs) have revolutionized crop breeding. The advent of these technologies has enabled the identification of beneficial quantitative trait loci (QTL), genes, and alleles for crop improvement. Climate change have made a significant effect on the global maize yield. To date, the well-known omic approaches such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics are being incorporated in maize breeding studies. These approaches have identified novel biological markers that are being utilized for maize improvement against various abiotic stresses. This review discusses the current information on the morpho-physiological and molecular mechanism of abiotic stress tolerance in maize. The utilization of omics approaches to improve abiotic stress tolerance in maize is highlighted. As compared to single approach, the integration of multi-omics offers a great potential in addressing the challenges of abiotic stresses of maize productivity.

Keywords: genome editing; genomics; miRNA; phenomics; transcriptomics.

Publication types

Review