Advances in genetic improvement of Camelina sativa for biofuel and industrial bio-products

Ever-increasing global energy demand, diminishing fossil fuel reserves and environmental concerns have forced to look for renewable and sustainable alternative energy sources preferentially from non-food crops. Camelina being a short-duration, low-cost, non-food oilseed crop with high content of oil (45%) rich in unsaturated fatty acids and capable of growing in marginal lands has emerged as a potential alternative for biofuel (with low carbon emission) and industrial bio-products. However, the fatty acid profile needs to be refined to make it more efficient for biodiesel and bio-products. Attempts to improve crop yield, oil content and composition through conventional and mutation breeding have been limited due to inadequate genetic diversity and availability of mutants. Simple and easy transformation and recent upsurge in 'omits' data (trancriptomics and genomics) has resulted in better understanding of lipid biosynthesis and its regulation, and thus has made it possible to produce unusual lipids with modified fatty acids for new functionalities. However, further improvement is still awaited for carbon assimilation efficiency, resistance to various abiotic and biotic stresses, seed yield, oil content and composition. This review extensively analyses the recent advances and challenges in using molecular markers, genomics, transcriptomics, miRNAs and transgenesis for improvement in biotic and abiotic stresses, carbon assimilation capabilities, seed yield, oil content and composition in camelina for biodiesel fuel properties, nutrition and high value-added industrial products like bioplastics, wax esters and terpenoids.