Metabolomics and Metabolic Engineering for Crop Improvement: Current Trends and Future Prospects

Abstract

Metabolomics is a rising field within the realm of “omics,” focusing on the detection and measurement of metabolites and chemical markers associated with cellular regulatory mechanisms across various biological organisms. The exploration of metabolomic control in plant life plays a imperative role in comprehending their ability to adapt, acclimate, and defend against environmental pressures by generating a diverse array of metabolites. Furthermore, the application of metabolomics holds promise in the characterization of plant traits, offering significant prospective for amalgamation into genome editing initiatives aimed at advancing the development of enhanced, future-generation crops. The forefront technologies have introduced economical and high-capacity methods to molecularly analyze the operation of cells or organisms. Cutting-edge analytical methods in metabolomics, such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), liquid chromatography mass-spectrometry (LC-MS), gas chromatography-mass (GC-MS) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) have accelerated metabolic profiling. This review provides an insights into the latest tools in plant metabolomics for enhancing crops and process of plant metabolome research, engaging in  plant mechanisms especially for tolerating biotic and abiotic stresses. This review also provide potential approaches to metabolomics through metabolic engineering such as miRNA- and RNAi-Mediated Metabolic Engineering, Genome editing mediated metabolic Engineering etc