Transcriptomics in solanaceous crop improvement: advances and opportunities

TL;DR

This paper reviews how transcriptomics is helping improve solanaceous crops like tomatoes and potatoes by understanding gene expression related to quality, yield, and stress resistance.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive review of recent transcriptomics advances and future directions in solanaceous crop improvement.

Findings

Transcriptomics has enhanced understanding of gene regulatory networks in solanaceous crops.

Next-generation sequencing has enabled progress in studying traits like fruit quality and stress resistance.

Future perspectives include applying transcriptomics in genetic engineering for crop improvement.

Abstract

The solanaceae family includes several economically important crops. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), potato (S. tuberosum), eggplant (S. melongena), and pepper (Capsicum annuum) are among the most consumed vegetables worldwide. Over the past few decades, consumers have often expressed dissatisfaction with declining fruit quality, especially flavor, while growers’ profits remain tied primarily to yield and stress resistance. Thus, reconciling these divergent demands provides a clear roadmap for improving solanaceous crops. To completely understand molecular mechanisms underlying biological processes associated with fruit quality, yield, and stresses, there is a need to focus on gene expression at the RNA level. With the availability of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, transcriptomics platforms have helped to improve our knowledge about RNA-based gene regulatory networks. The current review discusses the recent literature on transcriptomics techniques and their progress status in major solanaceae crops across important agronomic traits. In addition to the current improvements, we have also discussed future perspectives of transcriptomics in genetic engineering.

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