Transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics interventions prompt crop improvement against metal(loid) toxicity.

The escalating challenges posed by metal(loid) toxicity in agricultural ecosystems, exacerbated by rapid climate change and anthropogenic pressures, demand urgent attention. Soil contamination is a critical issue because it significantly impacts crop productivity. The widespread threat of metal(loid) toxicity can jeopardize global food security due to contaminated food supplies and pose environmental risks, contributing to soil and water pollution and thus impacting the whole ecosystem. In this context, plants have evolved complex mechanisms to combat metal(loid) stress. Amid the array of innovative approaches, omics, notably transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, have emerged as transformative tools, shedding light on the genes, proteins, and key metabolites involved in metal(loid) stress responses and tolerance mechanisms. These identified candidates hold promise for developing high-yielding crops with desirable agronomic traits. Computational biology tools like bioinformatics, biological databases, and analytical pipelines support these omics approaches by harnessing diverse information and facilitating the mapping of genotype-to-phenotype relationships under stress conditions. This review explores: (1) the multifaceted strategies that plants use to adapt to metal(loid) toxicity in their environment; (2) the latest findings in metal(loid)-mediated transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics studies across various plant species; (3) the integration of omics data with artificial intelligence and high-throughput phenotyping; (4) the latest bioinformatics databases, tools and pipelines for single and/or multi-omics data integration; (5) the latest insights into stress adaptations and tolerance mechanisms for future outlooks; and (6) the capacity of omics advances for creating sustainable and resilient crop plants that can thrive in metal(loid)-contaminated environments.

Plant beneficial microbiome a boon for improving multiple stress tolerance in plants.

Beneficial microbes or their products have been key drivers for improving adaptive and growth features in plants under biotic and abiotic stress conditions. However, the majority of these studies so far have been utilized against individual stressors. In comparison to individual stressors, the combination of many environmental stresses that plants experience has a greater detrimental effect on them and poses a threat to their existence. Therefore, there is a need to explore the beneficial microbiota against combined stressors or multiple stressors, as this will offer new possibilities for improving plant growth and multiple adaptive traits. However, recognition of the multifaceted core beneficial microbiota from plant microbiome under stress combinations will require a thorough understanding of the functional and mechanistic facets of plant microbiome interactions under different environmental conditions in addition to agronomic management practices. Also, the development of tailored beneficial multiple stress tolerant microbiota in sustainable agriculture necessitates new model systems and prioritizes agricultural microbiome research. In this review, we provided an update on the effect of combined stressors on plants and their microbiome structure. Next, we discussed the role of beneficial microbes in plant growth promotion and stress adaptation. We also discussed how plant-beneficial microbes can be utilized for mitigating multiple stresses in plants. Finally, we have highlighted some key points that warrant future investigation for exploring plant microbiome interactions under multiple stressors.

Integrons in the development of antimicrobial resistance: critical review and perspectives.

Antibiotic resistance development and pathogen cross-dissemination are both considered essential risks to human health on a worldwide scale. Antimicrobial resistance genes (AMRs) are acquired, expressed, disseminated, and traded mainly through integrons, the key players capable of transferring genes from bacterial chromosomes to plasmids and their integration by integrase to the target pathogenic host. Moreover, integrons play a central role in disseminating and assembling genes connected with antibiotic resistance in pathogenic and commensal bacterial species. They exhibit a large and concealed diversity in the natural environment, raising concerns about their potential for comprehensive application in bacterial adaptation. They should be viewed as a dangerous pool of resistance determinants from the "One Health approach." Among the three documented classes of integrons reported viz., class-1, 2, and 3, class 1 has been found frequently associated with AMRs in humans and is a critical genetic element to serve as a target for therapeutics to AMRs through gene silencing or combinatorial therapies. The direct method of screening gene cassettes linked to pathogenesis and resistance harbored by integrons is a novel way to assess human health. In the last decade, they have witnessed surveying the integron-associated gene cassettes associated with increased drug tolerance and rising pathogenicity of human pathogenic microbes. Consequently, we aimed to unravel the structure and functions of integrons and their integration mechanism by understanding horizontal gene transfer from one trophic group to another. Many updates for the gene cassettes harbored by integrons related to resistance and pathogenicity are extensively explored. Additionally, an updated account of the assessment of AMRs and prevailing antibiotic resistance by integrons in humans is grossly detailed-lastly, the estimation of AMR dissemination by employing integrons as potential biomarkers are also highlighted. The current review on integrons will pave the way to clinical understanding for devising a roadmap solution to AMR and pathogenicity. Graphical AbstractThe graphical abstract displays how integron-aided AMRs to humans: Transposons capture integron gene cassettes to yield high mobility integrons that target res sites of plasmids. These plasmids, in turn, promote the mobility of acquired integrons into diverse bacterial species. The acquisitions of resistant genes are transferred to humans through horizontal gene transfer.

A review on anti-nutritional factors: unraveling the natural gateways to human health.

Humans are constantly facing multiple health challenges from both communicable and non-communicable diseases that significantly affect their health. Additionally, drug resistance or failure has made the situation even worse and poses serious challenges for researchers to develop new drugs. Hence, to address these problems, there is an urgent need to discover and develop timely and long-term-based therapeutic treatments from different sources. One such approach is harnessing the potential of plant secondary metabolites. Plants have been utilized for therapeutic purposes in addition to being used for nutritional benefits. In the last two decades, plant-based drug developments have been one of the effective means of treating human diseases owing to their multiple functions. More recently, anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) have emerged as one of the important targets for novel plant-based drug development due to their multifaceted and potential pharmacological properties. However, their anti-nutritional properties have been the major setback for their limited success in the pharmacological sector. In this review, we provide an overview of ANFs and their beneficial roles in preventing human diseases with multiple case studies. We also highlight the recent developments and applications of ANFs in the food industry, agriculture, and pharmaceutics with future perspectives. Furthermore, we evaluate meta-analyses on ANFs from the last 30 years in relation to their function in human health benefits. This review is an endeavor to reevaluate the merit of these natural compounds and explore their potential for both human and animal health.

Buckwheat OMICS: present status and future prospects.

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) is an underutilized resilient crop of North Western Himalayas belonging to the family Polygonaceae and is a source of essential nutrients and therapeutics. Common Buckwheat and Tatary Buckwheat are the two main cultivated species used as food. It is the only grain crop possessing rutin, an important metabolite with high nutraceutical potential. Due to its inherent tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses and a short life cycle, Buckwheat has been proposed as a model crop plant. Nutritional security is one of the major concerns, breeding for a nutrient-dense crop such as Buckwheat will provide a sustainable solution. Efforts toward improving Buckwheat for nutrition and yield are limited due to the lack of available: genetic resources, genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics. In order to harness the agricultural importance of Buckwheat, an integrated breeding and OMICS platforms needs to be established that can pave the way for a better understanding of crop biology and developing commercial varieties. This, coupled with the availability of the genome sequences of both Buckwheat species in the public domain, should facilitate the identification of alleles/QTLs and candidate genes. There is a need to further our understanding of the molecular basis of the genetic regulation that controls various economically important traits. The present review focuses on: the food and nutritional importance of Buckwheat, its various omics resources, utilization of omics approaches in understanding Buckwheat biology and, finally, how an integrated platform of breeding and omics will help in developing commercially high yielding nutrient rich cultivars in Buckwheat.

Putting CRISPR-Cas system in action: a golden window for efficient and precise genome editing for crop improvement.

The daunting task of feeding an ever-growing population is an immense challenge for the contemporary scientific community, especially in view of the rapidly changing climate throughout the world. Amidst these threatening crises, we witness rapid development in genome editing (GE) technologies, revolutionizing the field of applied genomics and molecular breeding. Various GE tools have been developed during the last two decades, but the CRISPR/Cas system has most recently made a significant impact on crop improvement. The major breakthroughs of this versatile toolbox are genomic modifications like single base-substitutions, multiplex GE, gene regulation, screening mutagenesis, and enhancing the breeding of wild crop plants. Previously, this toolbox was used to modify genes related to significant traits such as biotic/abiotic resistance/tolerance, post-harvest traits, nutritional regulation, and to address self-incompatibility analysis-related challenges. In the present review, we have demonstrated the functional dynamics of CRISPR-based GE and its applicability in targeting genes to accomplish novel editing of crops. The compiled knowledge will provide a solid foundation for highlighting the primary source for applying CRISPR/Cas as a toolbox for enhancing crops, to achieve food and nutritional security.

Shifting archetype to nature's hidden gems: from sources, purification to uncover the nutritional potential of bioactive peptides.

Contemporary scientific findings revealed that our daily food stuffs are enriched by encrypted bioactive peptides (BPs), evolved by peptide linkage of amino acids or encrypted from the native protein structures. Remarkable to these BPs lies in their potential health benefiting biological activities to serve as nutraceuticals or a lead addition to the development of functional foods. The biological activities of BPs vary depending on the sequence as well as amino acid composition. Existing database records approximately 3000 peptide sequences which possess potential biological activities such as antioxidants, antihypertensive, antithrombotic, anti-adipogenics, anti-microbials, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancerous. The growing evidences suggest that BPs have very low toxicity, higher accuracy, less tissue accretion, and are easily degraded in the disposed environment. BPs are nowadays evolved as biologically active molecules with potential scope to reduce microbial contamination as well as ward off oxidation of foods, amend diverse range of human diseases to enhance the overall quality of human life. Against the clinical and health perspectives of BPs, this review aimed to elaborate current evolution of nutritional potential of BPs, studies pertaining to overcome limitations with respect to special focus on emerging extraction, protection and delivery tools of BPs. In addition, the nano-delivery mechanism of BP and its clinical significance is detailed. The aim of current review is to augment the research in the field of BPs production, identification, characterisation and to speed up the investigation of the incredible potentials of BPs as potential nutritional and functional food ingredient.

Integrating genomics and genome editing for orphan crop improvement: a bridge between orphan crops and modern agriculture system.

Domestication of orphan crops could be explored by editing their genomes. Genome editing has a lot of promise for enhancing agricultural output, and there is a lot of interest in furthering breeding in orphan crops, which are sometimes plagued with unwanted traits that resemble wild cousins. Consequently, applying model crop knowledge to orphan crops allows for the rapid generation of targeted allelic diversity and innovative breeding germplasm. We explain how plant breeders could employ genome editing as a novel platform to accelerate the domestication of semi-domesticated or wild plants, resulting in a more diversified base for future food and fodder supplies. This review emphasizes both the practicality of the strategy and the need to invest in research that advances our understanding of plant genomes, genes, and cellular systems. Planting more of these abandoned orphan crops could help alleviate food scarcities in the challenge of future climate crises.

Proteomics for abiotic stresses in legumes: present status and future directions.

Legumes are the most important crop plants in agriculture, contributing 27% of the world's primary food production. However, productivity and production of Legumes is reduced due to increasing environmental stress. Hence, there is a pressing need to understand the molecular mechanism involved in stress response and legumes adaptation. Proteomics provides an important molecular approach to investigate proteins involved in stress response. Both the gel-based and gel-free-based techniques have significantly contributed to understanding the proteome regulatory network in leguminous plants. In the present review, we have discussed the role of different proteomic approaches (2-DE, 2 D-DIGE, ICAT, iTRAQ, etc.) in the identification of various stress-responsive proteins in important leguminous crops, including soybean, chickpea, cowpea, pigeon pea, groundnut, and common bean under variable abiotic stresses including heat, drought, salinity, waterlogging, frost, chilling and metal toxicity. The proteomic analysis has revealed that most of the identified differentially expressed proteins in legumes are involved in photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, signal transduction, protein metabolism, defense, and stress adaptation. The proteomic approaches provide insights in understanding the molecular mechanism of stress tolerance in legumes and have resulted in the identification of candidate genes used for the genetic improvement of plants against various environmental stresses. Identifying novel proteins and determining their expression under different stress conditions provide the basis for effective engineering strategies to improve stress tolerance in crop plants through marker-assisted breeding.

Natural Therapeutics in Aid of Treating Alzheimer's Disease: A Green Gateway Toward Ending Quest for Treating Neurological Disorders.

The current scientific community is facing a daunting challenge to unravel reliable natural compounds with realistic potential to treat neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). The reported compounds/drugs mostly synthetic deemed the reliability and therapeutic potential largely due to their complexity and off-target issues. The natural products from nutraceutical compounds emerge as viable preventive therapeutics to fill the huge gap in treating neurological disorders. Considering that Alzheimer's disease is a multifactorial disease, natural compounds offer the advantage of a multitarget approach, tagging different molecular sites in the human brain, as compared with the single-target activity of most of the drugs so far used to treat Alzheimer's disease. A wide range of plant extracts and phytochemicals reported to possess the therapeutic potential to Alzheimer's disease includes curcumin, resveratrol, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, morin, delphinidins, quercetin, luteolin, oleocanthal, and other phytochemicals such as huperzine A, limonoids, and azaphilones. Reported targets of these natural compounds include inhibition of acetylcholinesterase, amyloid senile plaques, oxidation products, inflammatory pathways, specific brain receptors, etc. We tenaciously aimed to review the in-depth potential of natural products and their therapeutic applications against Alzheimer's disease, with a special focus on a diversity of medicinal plants and phytocompounds and their mechanism of action against Alzheimer's disease pathologies. We strongly believe that the medicinal plants and phytoconstituents alone or in combination with other compounds would be effective treatments against Alzheimer's disease with lesser side effects as compared to currently available treatments.

Plant-derived extracellular vesicles: a novel nanomedicine approach with advantages and challenges.

BACKGROUND: Many eukaryote cells produce membrane-enclosed extracellular vesicles (EVs) to establish cell-to-cell communication. Plant-derived EVs (P-EVs) contain proteins, RNAs, lipids, and other metabolites that can be isolated from the juice, the flesh, and roots of many species. METHODS: In the present review study, we studied numerous articles over the past two decades published on the role of P-EVs in plant physiology as well as on the application of these vesicles in different diseases. RESULTS: Different types of EVs have been identified in plants that have multiple functions including reorganization of cell structure, development, facilitating crosstalk between plants and fungi, plant immunity, defense against pathogens. Purified from several edible species, these EVs are more biocompatible, biodegradable, and extremely available from many plants, making them useful for cell-free therapy. Emerging evidence of clinical and preclinical studies suggest that P-EVs have numerous benefits over conventional synthetic carriers, opening novel frontiers for the novel drug-delivery system. Exciting new opportunities, including designing drug-loaded P-EVs to improve the drug-delivery systems, are already being examined, however clinical translation of P-EVs-based therapies faces challenges. CONCLUSION: P-EVs hold great promise for clinical application in the treatment of different diseases. In addition, despite enthusiastic results, further scrutiny should focus on unravelling the detailed mechanism behind P-EVs biogenesis and trafficking as well as their therapeutic applications. Video Abstract.

Multidimensional Role of Silicon to Activate Resilient Plant Growth and to Mitigate Abiotic Stress.

Sustainable agricultural production is critically antagonistic by fluctuating unfavorable environmental conditions. The introduction of mineral elements emerged as the most exciting and magical aspect, apart from the novel intervention of traditional and applied strategies to defend the abiotic stress conditions. The silicon (Si) has ameliorating impacts by regulating diverse functionalities on enhancing the growth and development of crop plants. Si is categorized as a non-essential element since crop plants accumulate less during normal environmental conditions. Studies on the application of Si in plants highlight the beneficial role of Si during extreme stressful conditions through modulation of several metabolites during abiotic stress conditions. Phytohormones are primary plant metabolites positively regulated by Si during abiotic stress conditions. Phytohormones play a pivotal role in crop plants' broad-spectrum biochemical and physiological aspects during normal and extreme environmental conditions. Frontline phytohormones include auxin, cytokinin, ethylene, gibberellin, salicylic acid, abscisic acid, brassinosteroids, and jasmonic acid. These phytohormones are internally correlated with Si in regulating abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms. This review explores insights into the role of Si in enhancing the phytohormone metabolism and its role in maintaining the physiological and biochemical well-being of crop plants during diverse abiotic stresses. Moreover, in-depth information about Si's pivotal role in inducing abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants through metabolic and molecular modulations is elaborated. Furthermore, the potential of various high throughput technologies has also been discussed in improving Si-induced multiple stress tolerance. In addition, a special emphasis is engrossed in the role of Si in achieving sustainable agricultural growth and global food security.

Identification of QTLs/ Candidate Genes for Seed Mineral Contents in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Through Genotyping-by-Sequencing.

Throughout the ages, the common bean has been consumed by humanity as an important food staple crop and source of nutrition on a global scale. Since its domestication, a wide spectrum of phenotypic and genotypic investigations have been carried out to unravel the potential of this crop and to understand the process of nutrient accumulation along with other desirable characteristics. The common bean is one of the essential legume crops due to its high protein and micronutrient content. The balance in micronutrients is critical for the growth and development of plants as well as humans. Iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn), Magnesium (Mg), Calcium (Ca), and Molybdenum (Mo) are some of the important micronutrients present in legumes. Thus, we aimed to investigate the quantitative trait loci's (QTLs)/single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to identify the candidate genes associated with micronutrients through genotyping by sequencing (GBS). In our investigation, through GBS we identified SNPs linked with traits and assessed seven micronutrients in 96 selected common bean genotypes for screening nutritionally rich genotypes. Among 96399 SNPs total identified through GBS, 113 SNPs showed significant phenotypic variance, ranging from 13.50 to 21.74%. SNPs associated with most of the seed micronutrients (Mg, Mn, Fe, Ca, Cu) were found on chr3 & chr11 (Mg, Mn, Mo, Ca, Zn). The findings from this study could be used for haplotype-based selection of nutritionally rich genotypes and for marker-assisted genetic enhancement of the common bean. Further, the identified SNPs for candidate genes/transporters associated with micronutrient content may pave the way for the enrichment of seeds by employing genomics-assisted breeding programs.

Utilizing the underutilized plant resources for development of life style foods: Putting nutrigenomics to use.

Sufficient amount of minerals, vitamins, and proteins in human diet play indispensable role in maintaining the active metabolism for better human health. All the essential nutrients that are requisite for an individual's survival are acquired from plants as well as animals. Micronutrients and macronutrients directly influence the metabolic pathways and their deficiencies play a substantial role in development of manifold disorders. In addition to environmental factors, quality and quantity of foods are key factors in maintaining the human health. Transition from healthy to diseased state is concurrent with the pattern of gene expression that is largely influenced by nutrition and environment. A combined approach to study the influence of nutrition on expression of numerous genes can be well explored through nutrigenomic studies. Nutrigenomics includes studies wherein applied genomics is used to investigate nutritional science to understand the compartmentalization of genes that influence the cause of diet-related complications. This review describes the role of underutilized crops as frontline foods to circumvent the health complications through the nutrigenomic studies. Further dynamics of nutrigenomic tools to study the impact of nutrition on the changing pattern of genome stability and gene expression for developing precise safety measures against wide range of health ailments linked to metabolic networks. Additionally, this review provides detailed information on nutrigenomic studies undertaken to unravel the potential of underutilized crops to augment the human health and to carry the agronomic/genomic approaches to enhance nutritional profile of underutilized crops to overcome diet-related disorders.

Emerging trends in developing biosensor techniques to undertake plant phosphoproteomic analysis.

Protein modifications particularly phosphorylation is governed by a complex array of mechanisms to attain a functional conformation and regulate important biological processes in organisms during external environmental stimuli and hormone signaling. Phosphoproteomics is a promising field of proteomics for identification of proteins with phosphate groups and their impact on structure, function and localization of proteins. Techniques that allow quantitative detection of proteins and their post-translational modifications (PTMs) have immensely led to understand the structural and functional dynamics of proteins. Biosensor systems are a relatively new biotechnological approach that works on the principle of transforming the interactions of different biological samples viz proteins, enzymes, aptamers, nucleic acids and so on into the signals such as electrochemical, colorimetric, optical or magnetic which have been effectively useful in the detection and characterization of phosphoproteins. The focus of our review is to provide a comprehensive account of the critical role and utility of novel biosensors such as, fluorescence based, enrichment based, nanobody based biosensors, as promising technical intercessions to identify phosphoproteins and their influence on structural dynamics of proteins. Furthermore, by studying the innovative phosphoprotein biosensors we will be able to identify the aberrant phosphorylation patterns to precisely diagnose diseases.

Integrating CRISPR-Cas and Next Generation Sequencing in Plant Virology.

Plant pathology has been revolutionized by the emergence and intervention of next-generation sequencing technologies (NGS) which provide a fast, cost-effective, and reliable diagnostic for any class of pathogens. NGS has made tremendous advancements in the area of research and diagnostics of plant infecting viromes and has bridged plant virology with other advanced research fields like genome editing technologies. NGS in a broader perspective holds the potential for plant health improvement by diagnosing and mitigating the new or unusual symptoms caused by novel/unidentified viruses. CRISPR-based genome editing technologies can enable rapid engineering of efficient viral/viroid resistance by directly targeting specific nucleotide sites of plant viruses and viroids. Critical genes such as eIf (iso) 4E or eIF4E have been targeted via the CRISPR platform to produce plants resistant to single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) viruses. CRISPR/Cas-based multi-target DNA or RNA tests can be used for rapid and accurate diagnostic assays for plant viruses and viroids. Integrating NGS with CRISPR-based genome editing technologies may lead to a paradigm shift in combating deadly disease-causing plant viruses/viroids at the genomic level. Furthermore, the newly discovered CRISPR/Cas13 system has unprecedented potential in plant viroid diagnostics and interference. In this review, we have highlighted the application and importance of sequencing technologies on covering the viral genomes for precise modulations. This review also provides a snapshot vision of emerging developments in NGS technologies for the characterization of plant viruses and their potential utilities, advantages, and limitations in plant viral diagnostics. Furthermore, some of the notable advances like novel virus-inducible CRISPR/Cas9 system that confers virus resistance with no off-target effects have been discussed.

Mechanistic insights of CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome editing towards enhancing abiotic stress tolerance in plants.

Abiotic stresses such as temperature (high/low), drought, salinity, and others make the environment hostile to plants. Abiotic stressors adversely affect plant growth and development; and thereby makes a direct impact on overall plant productivity. Plants confront stress by developing an internal defense system orchestrated by compatible solutes, reactive oxygen species scavengers and phytohormones. However, routine exposure to unpredictable environmental stressors makes it essential to equip plants with a system that contributes to sustainable agricultural productivity, besides imparting multi-stress tolerance. The sustainable approach against abiotic stress is accomplished through breeding of tolerant cultivars. Though eco-friendly, tedious screening and crossing protocol limits its usage to overcome stress and in attaining the goal of global food security. Advancement on the technological front has enabled adoption of genomic engineering approaches to perform site-specific modification in the plant genome for improving adaptability, increasing the yield and in attributing resilience against different stressors. Of the different genome editing approaches, CRISPR/Cas has revolutionized biological research with wider applicability to crop plants. CRISPR/Cas emerged as a versatile tool in editing genomes for desired traits in highly accurate and precise manner. The present study summarizes advancement of the CRISPR/Cas genome editing tool in its adoption to manipulate plant genomes for novel traits towards developing high-yielding and climate-resilient crop varieties.

Physiological and Multi-Omics Approaches for Explaining Drought Stress Tolerance and Supporting Sustainable Production of Rice.

Drought differs from other natural disasters in several respects, largely because of the complexity of a crop's response to it and also because we have the least understanding of a crop's inductive mechanism for addressing drought tolerance among all abiotic stressors. Overall, the growth and productivity of crops at a global level is now thought to be an issue that is more severe and arises more frequently due to climatic change-induced drought stress. Among the major crops, rice is a frontline staple cereal crop of the developing world and is critical to sustaining populations on a daily basis. Worldwide, studies have reported a reduction in rice productivity over the years as a consequence of drought. Plants are evolutionarily primed to withstand a substantial number of environmental cues by undergoing a wide range of changes at the molecular level, involving gene, protein and metabolite interactions to protect the growing plant. Currently, an in-depth, precise and systemic understanding of fundamental biological and cellular mechanisms activated by crop plants during stress is accomplished by an umbrella of -omics technologies, such as transcriptomics, metabolomics and proteomics. This combination of multi-omics approaches provides a comprehensive understanding of cellular dynamics during drought or other stress conditions in comparison to a single -omics approach. Thus a greater need to utilize information (big-omics data) from various molecular pathways to develop drought-resilient crop varieties for cultivation in ever-changing climatic conditions. This review article is focused on assembling current peer-reviewed published knowledge on the use of multi-omics approaches toward expediting the development of drought-tolerant rice plants for sustainable rice production and realizing global food security.