Rapid population growth demands research on alternative, nutritionally rich food crops that can sustain food security, mitigate cultivation risks associated with climate change, and reduce dependence on mono- and few-crop systems. Several underutilized crops have been cultivated for centuries, but their use often remains country- or continent-specific, with limited scientific documentation and dissemination to regions facing major nutritional challenges. Moringa is one such promising crop; with rich nutrients, its plant parts, from root to pod, are edible or useful, and it also contributes to environmental cleansing. However, its wider utilization is constrained by anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) such as alkaloids, tannins, saponins, oxalates, glucosinolates (GSLs) and phytic acid, which reduce nutrient bioavailability and may cause adverse health effects. Various methods, including microbial fermentation, have proven effective at reducing these ANFs. For instance, lactic acid and solid-state fermentation can substantially reduce the enzymatic degradability of ANFs such as phytate, tannins, and GSLs while improving mineral bioavailability. In parallel, genetic and biotechnological approaches improving moringa offer substantial potential to alleviate malnutrition and enhance environmental and agronomic performance through better yield, quality, and stress resilience, along with ANF reduction. This review synthesizes current knowledge on moringa botany, crop diversity and summarizes genetic and biotechnological approaches, including omics resources, conventional breeding, microbial fermentation, and emerging genome-editing strategies, to improve yield and nutritional quality while reducing ANFs. By outlining the benefits of moringa, identifying major knowledge gaps, and highlighting future research priorities, this review aims to guide the strategic development and global deployment of moringa as a resilient, nutrient-dense crop for sustainable food and nutrition security.
Shamini Karunagaran, Saraladevi Muthusamy, A. Manikandan et al.· Frontiers in Plant Science· 0 citations
Forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), a climate-resilient, drought-tolerant fodder crop with high adaptability and biomass potential, plays a significant role in addressing global livestock feed and fodder demands. However, its complex quantitative quality traits, such as crude protein, fibre fractions, crude fat, lignin and antinutritional factors like hydrogen cyanide (HCN) content, show considerable variation across genotypes and are strongly influenced by developmental stage, management practices and environmental conditions. This review comprehensively summarises the genetic and molecular strategies for improving forage quality traits in sorghum, highlighting key trait relationships, yield-quality trade-offs, harvesting effects and emerging genomic tools to accelerate the development of nutritionally superior and safer forage sorghum cultivars. Conventional breeding programs have contributed to the development of improved forage sorghum cultivars. Brown midrib lines have emerged as a successful breeding strategy, with average neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) contents of 57.5 % and 33.67 % dry matter (DM), compared to 59.45 % and 36.51 % DM in conventional varieties. However, this is often accompanied by biomass yield penalties of approximately 14.33 %. Recent advances in molecular breeding, such as functional genomics, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, marker-assisted selection and antisense-mediated downregulation, have enabled the precise identification of the genetic architecture of forage quality traits. In particular, QTL mapping uncovered 43 overlapping QTLs controlling various forage quality traits and biomass traits, demonstrating their interconnections and possibilities for their simultaneous improvement. The identified candidate genes and pleiotropic loci controlling forage quality traits offer new opportunities for genomic-assisted improvement, where gene-editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 can simultaneously enhance feed safety, biomass yields and nutritional quality.
Raja Janani, D. Kavithamani, K. Meena et al.· Plant Science Today· 0 citations
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