Peanut growth, development, and eventual production are constrained by biotic and abiotic stresses resulting in serious economic losses. To understand the response and tolerance mechanism of peanut to biotic and abiotic stresses, high-throughput Omics approaches have been applied in peanut research. Integrated Omics approaches are essential for elucidating the temporal and spatial changes that occur in peanut facing different stresses. The integration of functional genomics with other Omics highlights the relationships between peanut genomes and phenotypes under specific stress conditions. In this review, we focus on research on peanut biotic stresses. Here we review the primary types of biotic stresses that threaten sustainable peanut production, the multi-Omics technologies for peanut research and breeding, and the recent advances in various peanut Omics under biotic stresses, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, miRNAomics, epigenomics and phenomics, for identification of biotic stress-related genes, proteins, metabolites and their networks as well as the development of potential traits. We also discuss the challenges, opportunities, and future directions for peanut Omics under biotic stresses, aiming sustainable food production. The Omics knowledge is instrumental for improving peanut tolerance to cope with various biotic stresses and for meeting the food demands of the exponentially growing global population.

Pyramiding of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) is a powerful approach in breeding super-high-yield varieties. However, the performance of QTLs in improving rice yield varies with specific genetic backgrounds. In a previous study, we employed the CRISPR/Cas9 system to target three yield-related genes, gn1a, gs3, and ipa1 in japonica ‘Zhonghua 11’, mutants of which featured large panicle, big grain, few sterile tillers, and thicker culm, respectively. In this paper, four pyramided lines, including gn1a-gs3, gn1a-ipa1, gs3-ipa1, and gn1a-gs3-ipa1, were further generated by conventional cross-breeding to be tested. Agronomic traits analysis showed that: (1) the stacking lines carried large panicles with an increased spikelet number in the main panicle or panicle; (2) the grain weight of the stacking lines, especially gs3-ipa1 and gn1a-gs3-ipa1, were heavier than those in single mutants; (3) both gn1a-gs3 and gs3-ipa1 produced more grain yield per plant than single mutant lines; (4) pyramided lines were higher than single mutants and transcriptome analysis found improved expression levels of genes related to lipid, amino acid, and carbohydrate transport and metabolism in lines pyramiding three mutant alleles, possibly as a result of complementary and additive effects. Accordingly, the alteration of gene-expression patterns relating to hormone signaling, plant growth, and seed size control was characterized in pyramided lines. The present study not only investigates the effects of pyramiding genes, but also may provide an efficient strategy for breeding super-high-yield rice by reducing the time cost of developing pyramided lines.

Manipulation of floral transition may allow for a free change in the duration of plant vegetative and reproductive growth, thus rendering them to avoid adverse seasonal environmental conditions. In this report, we investigated the effect of the stress‐inducible promoter RD29A on driving the rice FT ortholog Hd3a expression in Lotus japonicus ‘MG20’ in response to environmental changes. Constitutive overexpression of Hd3a (HOE) in ‘MG20’ hastened its flowering in contrast to non‐transformed control (wild type; WT), which did not flower in winter hampered by long days and low temperatures. RD29A promoter had low activity under non‐stress conditions and was induced by cold, drought and salinity in transgenic ‘MG20’. Transgenic plants of Hd3a driven by the RD29A promoter (RH) could flower under unfavourable weather conditions that prohibited the flowering of WT plants. In addition, RH transgenic plants exhibited thriving clumps of branching, inflorescence, and pods because of the low temperature‐induced expression of Hd3a. These results demonstrate that inducible expression of florigen has the potential to tackle unfavourable weather conditions and boost plant production.

Lodging-tolerance is one of the most important goals in rice breeding. Due to its semi-dwarfism phenotype, dep1 can potentially improve lodging-tolerance. In this study, dep1 together with other three alleles, gs3, gn1a and ipa1, were integrated into high yield breeding strategy by conventional crossing and four combinations including dep1-gn1a, dep1-gs3, dep1-ipa1, and dep1-gs3-ipa1 were obtained. Though all the combinations showed plant phenotype similar to dep1, such as semi-dwarfism, short dense panicle, and short and erect flag leaf, their 1000-grain weight were observed to increase. Both dep1-ipa1 and dep1-gs3-ipa1 were characterized with improved lodging resistance and high yielding potential, while grain yield in both dep1-gn1a and dep1-gs3 dramatically decreased due to their low seed setting rate. Furthermore, specifically altered expression pattern of auxin and cytokinin related genes and abnormal stigma structure were found in two double mutant lines. Overall, current study demonstrated the potential of pyramiding dep1 conferring lodging-resistant trait with other high-yield related genes in cultivating elite rice varieties and additionally, providing a series of novel core germplasm for new insights into the interplay of dep1, gn1a, gs3, and ipa1 in regulating rice morphogenesis.