Submitted Successfully!
To reward your contribution, here is a gift for you: A free trial for our video production service.
Thank you for your contribution! You can also upload a video entry or images related to this topic.
Version Summary Created by Modification Content Size Created at Operation
1 -- 1650 2024-02-10 06:34:47 |
2 format Meta information modification 1650 2024-02-18 03:03:53 |

Video Upload Options

Do you have a full video?

Confirm

Are you sure to Delete?
Cite
If you have any further questions, please contact Encyclopedia Editorial Office.
Sodedji, K.A.F.; Assogbadjo, A.E.; Lee, B.; Kim, H. Integrated Approach for Carotenoid Biofortification in Cowpea. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/54976 (accessed on 21 May 2024).
Sodedji KAF, Assogbadjo AE, Lee B, Kim H. Integrated Approach for Carotenoid Biofortification in Cowpea. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/54976. Accessed May 21, 2024.
Sodedji, Kpedetin Ariel Frejus, Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo, Bokyung Lee, Ho-Youn Kim. "Integrated Approach for Carotenoid Biofortification in Cowpea" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/54976 (accessed May 21, 2024).
Sodedji, K.A.F., Assogbadjo, A.E., Lee, B., & Kim, H. (2024, February 10). Integrated Approach for Carotenoid Biofortification in Cowpea. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/54976
Sodedji, Kpedetin Ariel Frejus, et al. "Integrated Approach for Carotenoid Biofortification in Cowpea." Encyclopedia. Web. 10 February, 2024.
Integrated Approach for Carotenoid Biofortification in Cowpea
Edit

Legumes are a source of important secondary metabolites including carotenoids, and they play a significant role in food and diet diversification and ecosystem protection. Carotenoids are the second-most abundant naturally occurring pigments on earth, synthesized by plants, which fulfill important physiological functions. The main carotenoid pigments found in the photosystems of plants include α-Carotene and β-carotene, which are further hydroxylated to produce xanthophylls (e.g., lutein and zeaxanthin). The crucial roles of carotenoids and their metabolites in photooxidative protection and photosynthesis, not to mention nutrition, vision, and cellular differentiation, make them an important class of biological pigments. In cowpeas, carotenoids are mainly present in seeds, leaves, and pods, which contribute to the antioxidant properties of this legume. Increasing the content of carotenoids in cowpeas will contribute to food and nutrition security in the tropics. 

biofortification omics cowpea carotenoids plant factory

1. Breeding for Increased Carotenoid Content in Cowpea

In recent decades, biofortification has gained importance as one of the most sustainable ways to supply micronutrient-rich foods for alleviating hidden hunger and malnutrition worldwide [1][2]. In regard to carotenoids, most of the research efforts have focused on increasing the carotenoid precursors of vitamin A (provitamin-A carotenoids), such as β-carotene, α-carotene, and β-cryptoxanthin. Consequently, there have been significant advances in breeding for provitamin-A carotenoid varieties in some major crops, including maize, cassava, and sweet potato [3][4]; however, the potential of the legume grain crops including cowpea is still untapped. It is, thus, important to leverage the lessons and progress in other crops, in other to define an effective approach (Figure 1) for the biofortification of carotenoids in cowpea.
Figure 1. Road map for biofortification of carotenoids in cowpea.
The extent of genetic gain in breeding cowpea for enhanced carotenoid content depends on the knowledge of the genetic diversity for the trait. The screening and evaluation of crop diversity is the first and most important step in breeding for carotenoid-biofortified varieties [5]. The literature survey showed that information on the diversity of carotenoid content in cowpea is still very scant. Nonetheless, there have been extensive efforts on the collection and conservation of cowpea genetic resources, with large germplasm collections maintained at different genes banks, which can be used as working materials: IITA (15,003 accessions), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)–Genetic Resources Information Network (7737 accessions), and the University of California, Riverside (UCR), collections of 6000 accessions [6][7]. To save time and resources, the screening and evaluation can be narrowed down to the established mini-core collections from these various gene banks, which capture most of the existing diversity in the crop. The mini-core collections include 298 accessions from the IITA collections [7]; 368 accessions from the UCR collections [8]; and 369 accessions from the USDA cowpea germplasm [9].
The assessment of the genetic diversity for carotenoid content should integrate both biochemical profiling and molecular analyses. There are known genes, such as the phytoene synthase (PSY1), β-carotene hydroxylase (CHYB), lycopene β, and ξ cyclase (LYCB and LYCE), that play significant roles in the biosynthesis of carotenoids in plants [10][11]. Hence, the screening of the cowpea diversity panels targeting these genes can reduce the cost and time needed for profiling and help to precisely identify accessions with the trait of interest.
Genomics interventions for important and quantitative traits such as carotenoid content can begin at the early stage of the breeding scheme by tapping into the genetic and genomics resources of the crop [5][12]. The advances in cowpea genomics enabled the development of a reference genome [13], genetic linkage maps [14][15][16][17], and diverse molecular markers and marker systems (RFLP, SNPs, SSRs, KAPs, etc.) [18][19][20] to support the development of improved cowpea varieties. The assessment of genetic diversity for carotenoid content in cowpea can, therefore, be conducted along with screening and validation of the existing markers and their possible association with those known genes involved in carotenoid biosynthesis to identify quantitative trait loci amenable to the smooth implementation of marker-assisted selection (MAS) for enhanced carotenoid content in cowpea.
To anticipate the low genetic diversity reported in cowpea [7], deploying mutagenesis [21] will help to broaden the diversity in the crop. For this purpose, the use of TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions In Genomes), a technique that combines chemical mutagenesis and high-throughput screening of SNPs by mismatch detection [22], will help to achieve fast progress in broadening the genetic basis and improving the carotenoid content in cowpea.
Once the working germplasm with the elite or potential genotypes is identified, the next step involves embracing hybridization between accessions. Notably, at this stage, the objective consists of conducting smart combinations among genotypes using appropriate mating design (Diallel, North Carolina Mating Design) and population development techniques (Single Seed descent and Backcross) [23][24], which will help to estimate the variance components, gene actions as well as heritability [23] in order to dissect the genetic architecture of carotenoid biosynthesis in cowpea to support the breeding scheme. Previous research indicated the predominance of additive gene effects over the effects of non-additive genes in the inheritance of carotenoid content in plants [25][26], suggesting that the use of the proposed designs can also facilitate introgression of the trait into elite and farmers’ preferred cowpea cultivars.

2. Harnessing the Power of Plant Factory System, Speed Breeding, and Omics

Facing the increasing demand for quantity and quality foods to feed an ever-growing population, there has been a steady shift from traditional rain-fed agriculture to indoor growing systems/vertical farming. The evolution of this approach has given rise to the plant factory system, which is referred to as a closed plant production system in which ventilation is kept at a minimum, and artificial light is used as the sole light source for plant growth [27]. The adoption of this production practice has been very fast in horticultural crops. Nowadays, vegetables, such as spinach, tomato, and kale, are produced in factory systems [28][29][30], which have been customized to meet specific market demands including high-phytochemical and nutrient-dense products. This system can now be extended to agricultural crops with the recent development of the speed breeding method [31].
Speed breeding is a customized plant factory system for field crops in fully enclosed, controlled-environment growth chambers, which enables the production of many generations, up to six generations of crops per year [31]. Speed breeding shortens the growth cycle and the time needed for developing new crop varieties. The technology was first implemented for long-day crops such as wheat and canola [31] and has recently been extended to short-day crops [32], suggesting that the system can be optimized for cowpea.
As highlighted earlier, light is one of the factors influencing carotenoid biosynthesis in cowpea. The manipulation of light signaling can help to alter the color and nutritional value in plants, resulting in the production of novel functional foods [33]. Therefore, the optimization of the speed breeding technology for cowpea can help to control the lighting characteristics (intensity and duration) for increased carotenoid contents in the edible part of the plants, including sprouts, leaves. and green pods, to be used as functional foods. This growth system also offers the flexibility of a choice of plant-growing substrate (e.g., rockwool, top soil) to monitor the nutrition of the plants and to apply appropriate chemical elicitors that have a positive impact on carotenoid biosynthesis in plants [34][35].
Furthermore, the implementation of this approach in cowpea can also take advantage of the advances in the field of phenomics to deploy non-destructive tools for carotenoid detection and quantification [36][37][38] in cowpea. This will help to minimize the cost of extensive profiling and also generate quality phenotypic data [39] to guide understanding of the physiological and genetic basis of carotenoid biosynthesis in cowpea. Notably, the metabolomics regulation network of carotenoid biosynthesis in cowpea is still not fully documented.

3. Genetic Engineering for Increasing Carotenoid Content in Cowpea

Genetic engineering has emerged as a technology to overcome the slow process of conventional breeding and the lack of diversity for carotenoid traits among plant germplasm [40]. A recent report [41] on the side effects of domestication on the nutritional quality of legume crops in the Fabaceae family highlighted the decline in the contents of carotenoids following the domestication process. According to these authors, there was a decrease in carotenoid content (0.6 ± 0.1 μg/g) in the cultivated cowpea, about three-fold of the content in the wild cowpea (2.3 ± 0.5 μg/g) due to domestication. The wild cowpea gene pool may, therefore, be a source of favorable genes for increased carotenoid content in cowpea
To date, there is no evidence of genetically modified (GM) biofortified legume grains or pulses [42]. A comparative study of the mechanisms controlling the biosynthesis in the wild and cultivated cowpea plant will provide an avenue to perform guided mutations in the cultivated cowpea genome. The CRISPR/Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Cas9 protein) gene-editing technology can assist in precisely conducting the target mutation [40][43][44]. A similar approach was adopted in sweet potato with an increase of 4- to 130-fold of zeaxanthin content in the transgenic potato [45]. On the other hand, interspecific genes transfer between the wild cowpea and the cultivated cowpea genome through genetic transformation [46][47][48]. In addition, the donor organisms could be from closely related species in the Fabaceae family and plant or animal species with the genes of interest. For instance, metabolic engineering of the phytoene synthase gene (crtB) from bacteria (Erwinia uredovora) helped to achieve a 150-fold increase in β-carotene in transgenic eggplant callus [47]. The duplication of these approaches in cowpea can also help increase the carotenoid content. However, the environmental and health concerns about genetic engineering and its products globally, and especially in many regions where cowpea is a staple food crop, seem to portray genetic engineering as an avenue of last resort. Nonetheless, some tangible progress has been made with the adoption of Bt cowpea in Nigeria [49], the leading cowpea producer in the world, indicating a promising future to escalate this technique for increasing carotenoids in cowpea. Hence, continuous public awareness raising and increasing advocates in the private and public partnerships to scale up the research technologies in developing countries will be a strong levier in the successful deployment of genetic engineering for micronutrients including carotenoid contents in cowpea.

References

  1. Bouis, H.; Low, J.; McEwan, M.; Tanumihardjo, S. Biofortification: Evidence and Lessons Learned Linking Agriculture and Nutrition; FAO: Rome, Italy, 2013; pp. 1–23.
  2. Bouis, H.E.; Hotz, C.; McClafferty, B.; Meenakshi, J.V.; Pfeiffer, W.H. Biofortification: A new tool to reduce micronutrient malnutrition. Food Nutr. Bull. 2011, 32, S31–S40.
  3. Andersson, M. Progress update: Crop development of biofortified staple food crops under HarvestPlus. Afr. J. Food Agric. Nutr. Dev. 2017, 17, 11905–11935.
  4. Ephraim, N.; Evans, A. Advances in carotenoid increments in storage parts of African staple crops. J. Plant Breed. Crop Sci. 2019, 11, 68–79.
  5. Gedil, M.; Menkir, A. An Integrated Molecular and Conventional Breeding Scheme for Enhancing Genetic Gain in Maize in Africa. Front. Plant Sci. 2019, 10, 1430.
  6. Mahalakshmi, V.; Ng, Q.; Lawson, M.; Ortiz, R. Cowpea core collection defined by geographical, agronomical and botanical descriptors. Plant Genet. Resour. Charact. Util. 2007, 5, 113–119.
  7. Fatokun, C.; Girma, G.; Abberton, M.; Gedil, M.; Unachukwu, N.; Oyatomi, O.; Yusuf, M.; Rabbi, I.; Boukar, O. Genetic diversity and population structure of a mini-core subset from the world cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) germplasm collection. Sci. Rep. 2018, 8, 16035.
  8. Muñoz-Amatriaín, M.; Lo, S.; Herniter, I.A.; Boukar, O.; Fatokun, C.; Carvalho, M.; Castro, I.; Guo, Y.N.; Huynh, B.L.; Roberts, P.A.; et al. The UCR Minicore: A valuable resource for cowpea research and breeding. Legume Sci. 2021, 3, e95.
  9. Qin, J.; Shi, A.; Xiong, H.; Mou, B.; Motes, D.R.; Lu, W.; Miller, J.C.; Scheuring, D.C.; Nzaramba, M.N.; Weng, Y.; et al. Population structure analysis and association mapping of seed antioxidant content in USDA cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) core collection using SNPs. Can. J. Plant Sci. 2016, 96, 1026–1036.
  10. Stanley, L.; Yuan, Y.W. Transcriptional Regulation of Carotenoid Biosynthesis in Plants: So Many Regulators, So Little Consensus. Front. Plant Sci. 2019, 10, 1017.
  11. Gupta, H.S.; Hossain, F.; Muthusamy, V.; Zunjare, R.U. Marker-Assisted Breeding for Enrichment of Provitamin A in Maize. In Quality Breeding in Field Crops; Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2019; pp. 139–157.
  12. Boukar, O.; Belko, N.; Chamarthi, S.; Togola, A.; Batieno, J.; Owusu, E.; Haruna, M.; Diallo, S.; Umar, M.L.; Olufajo, O.; et al. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata): Genetics, genomics and breeding. Plant Breed. 2019, 138, 415–424.
  13. Lonardi, S.; Muñoz-Amatriaín, M.; Liang, Q.; Shu, S.; Wanamaker, S.I.; Lo, S.; Tanskanen, J.; Schulman, A.H.; Zhu, T.; Luo, M.C.; et al. The genome of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata Walp.). Plant J. 2019, 98, 767–782.
  14. Ouédraogo, J.T.; Gowda, B.S.; Jean, M.; Close, T.J.; Ehlers, J.D.; Hall, A.E.; Gillaspie, A.G.; Roberts, P.A.; Ismail, A.M.; Bruening, G.; et al. An improved genetic linkage map for cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) Combining AFLP, RFLP, RAPD, biochemical markers, and biological resistance traits. Genome 2002, 45, 175–188.
  15. Pan, L.; Wang, N.; Wu, Z.; Guo, R.; Yu, X.; Zheng, Y.; Xia, Q.; Gui, S.; Chen, C. A High Density Genetic Map Derived from RAD Sequencing and Its Application in QTL Analysis of Yield-Related Traits in Vigna unguiculata. Front. Plant Sci. 2017, 8, 1544.
  16. Muchero, W.; Diop, N.N.; Bhat, P.R.; Fenton, R.D.; Wanamaker, S.; Pottorff, M.; Hearne, S.; Cisse, N.; Fatokun, C.; Ehlers, J.D.; et al. A consensus genetic map of cowpea and synteny based on EST-derived SNPs. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2009, 106, 18159–18164.
  17. Adetumbi, J.A.; Akinyosoye, S.T.; Olowolafe, M.O.; Oloyede-Kamiyo, Q.O.; Agbeleye, O.A. Genetic linkage map of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) using SNP markers. Afr. J. Biotechnol. 2016, 15, 830–834.
  18. Chen, H.; Wang, L.; Liu, X.; Hu, L.; Wang, S.; Cheng, X. De novo transcriptomic analysis of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) for genic SSR marker development. BMC Genet. 2017, 18, 65.
  19. Mafakheri, K.; Bihamta, M.R.; Abbasi, A.R. Assessment of genetic diversity in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) germplasm using morphological and molecular characterisation. Cogent Food Agric. 2017, 3, 1327092.
  20. Gupta, S.K.; Gopalakrishna, T. Development of unigene-derived SSR markers in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and their transferability to other Vigna species. Genome 2010, 53, 508–523.
  21. Diouf, M.; Diallo, S.; Abaye Badiane, F.; Diack, O.; Diouf, D. Development of new cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) mutant genotypes, analysis of their agromorphological variation, genetic diversity and population structure. Biocell 2021, 45, 345–362.
  22. Sharp, P.; Dong, C. Tilling for plant breeding. Methods Mol. Biol. 2014, 1145, 155–165.
  23. Muthoni, J.; Shimelis, H. Mating designs commonly used in plant breeding: A review. Aust. J. Crop Sci. 2020, 14, 1855–1869.
  24. Cazzola, F.; Bermejo, C.J.; Gatti, I.; Cointry, E. Speed breeding in pulses: An opportunity to improve the efficiency of breeding programs. Crop Pasture Sci. 2021, 72, 165–172.
  25. Sreekala, C.; Raghava, S.P. Exploitation of heterosis for carotenoid content in African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) and its correlation with esterase polymorphism. Theor. Appl. Genet. 2003, 106, 771–776.
  26. Kandianis, C.B.; Stevens, R.; Liu, W.; Palacios, N.; Montgomery, K.; Pixley, K.; White, W.S.; Rocheford, T. Genetic architecture controlling variation in grain carotenoid composition and concentrations in two maize populations. Theor. Appl. Genet. 2013, 126, 2879–2895.
  27. Kozai, T.; Niu, G. Plant Factory as a Resource-Efficient Closed Plant Production System. In Plant Factory; Academic Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, 2016; pp. 69–90.
  28. Zhang, X.; Bian, Z.; Yuan, X.; Chen, X.; Lu, C. A review on the effects of light-emitting diode (LED) light on the nutrients of sprouts and microgreens. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 2020, 99, 203–216.
  29. Frede, K.; Schreiner, M.; Zrenner, R.; Graefe, J.; Baldermann, S. Carotenoid biosynthesis of pak choi (Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis) sprouts grown under different light-emitting diodes during the diurnal course. Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 2018, 17, 1289–1300.
  30. Ntagkas, N.; de Vos, R.C.H.; Woltering, E.J.; Nicole, C.C.S.; Labrie, C.; Marcelis, L.F.M. Modulation of the Tomato Fruit Metabolome by LED Light. Metabolites 2020, 10, 266.
  31. Watson, A.; Ghosh, S.; Williams, M.J.; Cuddy, W.S.; Simmonds, J.; Rey, M.D.; Asyraf Md Hatta, M.; Hinchliffe, A.; Steed, A.; Reynolds, D.; et al. Speed breeding is a powerful tool to accelerate crop research and breeding. Nat. Plants 2018, 4, 23–29.
  32. Jahne, F.; Hahn, V.; Wurschum, T.; Leiser, W.L. Speed breeding short-day crops by LED-controlled light schemes. Theor. Appl. Genet. 2020, 133, 2335–2342.
  33. Dhanapal, A.P.; Ray, J.D.; Singh, S.K.; Hoyos-Villegas, V.; Smith, J.R.; Purcell, L.C.; King, C.A.; Fritschi, F.B. Association mapping of total carotenoids in diverse soybean genotypes based on leaf extracts and high-throughput canopy spectral reflectance measurements. PLoS ONE 2015, 10, e0137213.
  34. Chandra, A.; Bhatt, R.K. Biochemical and physiological response to salicylic acid in relation to the systemic acquired resistance. Photosynthetica 1998, 35, 255–258.
  35. Stoleru, V.; Burlica, R.; Mihalache, G.; Dirlau, D.; Padureanu, S.; Teliban, G.C.; Astanei, D.; Cojocaru, A.; Beniuga, O.; Patras, A. Plant growth promotion effect of plasma activated water on Lactuca sativa L. cultivated in two different volumes of substrate. Sci. Rep. 2020, 10, 20920.
  36. Hempel, J.; Müller-Maatsch, J.; Carle, R.; Schweiggert, R.M. Non-destructive approach for the characterization of the in situ carotenoid deposition in gac fruit aril. J. Food Compos. Anal. 2018, 65, 16–22.
  37. Akpolat, H.; Barineau, M.; Jackson, K.A.; Akpolat, M.Z.; Francis, D.M.; Chen, Y.J.; Rodriguez-Saona, L.E. High-throughput phenotyping approach for screening major carotenoids of tomato by handheld raman spectroscopy using chemometric methods. Sensors 2020, 20, 3723.
  38. Araus, J.L.; Kefauver, S.C.; Zaman-Allah, M.; Olsen, M.S.; Cairns, J.E. Translating High-Throughput Phenotyping into Genetic Gain. Trends Plant Sci. 2018, 23, 451–466.
  39. Varshney, R.K.; Bohra, A.; Yu, J.; Graner, A.; Zhang, Q.; Sorrells, M.E. Designing Future Crops: Genomics-Assisted Breeding Comes of Age. Trends Plant Sci. 2021, 26, 631–649.
  40. Zheng, X.; Kuijer, H.N.J.; Al-Babili, S. Carotenoid Biofortification of Crops in the CRISPR Era. Trends Biotechnol. 2020, 39, 857–860.
  41. Fernández-Marín, B.; Milla, R.; Martín-Robles, N.; Arc, E.; Kranner, I.; Becerril, J.M.; García-Plazaola, J.I. Side-effects of domestication: Cultivated legume seeds contain similar tocopherols and fatty acids but less carotenoids than their wild counterparts. BMC Plant Biol. 2014, 14, 1599.
  42. Jha, A.B.; Warkentin, T.D. Biofortification of pulse crops: Status and future perspectives. Plants 2020, 9, 73.
  43. Mudziwapasi, R.; Ndudzo, A.; Nyamusamba, R.P.; Jomane, F.N.; Mutengwa, T.T.; Maphosa, M. Unlocking the potential of CRISPR technology for improving livelihoods in Africa. Biotechnol. Genet. Eng. Rev. 2018, 34, 198–215.
  44. Wada, N.; Ueta, R.; Osakabe, Y.; Osakabe, K. Precision genome editing in plants: State-of-the-art in CRISPR/Cas9-based genome engineering. BMC Plant Biol. 2020, 20, 234.
  45. Romer, S.; Lubeck, J.; Kauder, F.; Steiger, S.; Adomat, C.; Sandmann, G. Genetic engineering of a zeaxanthin-rich potato by antisense inactivation and co-suppression of carotenoid epoxidation. Metab. Eng. 2002, 4, 263–272.
  46. Sandmann, G. Genetic manipulation of carotenoid biosynthesis: Strategies, problems and achievements. Trends Plant Sci. 2001, 6, 14–17.
  47. Mishiba, K.I.; Nishida, K.; Inoue, N.; Fujiwara, T.; Teranishi, S.; Iwata, Y.; Takeda, S.; Koizumi, N. Genetic engineering of eggplant accumulating beta-carotene in fruit. Plant Cell Rep. 2020, 39, 1029–1039.
  48. Badejo, A.A. Elevated carotenoids in staple crops: The biosynthesis, challenges and measures for target delivery. J. Genet. Eng. Biotechnol. 2018, 16, 553–562.
  49. Komen, J.; Tripathi, L.; Mkoko, B.; Ofosu, D.O.; Oloka, H.; Wangari, D. Biosafety Regulatory Reviews and Leeway to Operate: Case Studies from Sub-Sahara Africa. Front. Plant Sci. 2020, 11, 130.
More
Information
Subjects: Plant Sciences
Contributors MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register : , , ,
View Times: 63
Revisions: 2 times (View History)
Update Date: 18 Feb 2024
1000/1000
Video Production Service