Vegetable biology and breeding in the genomics era

Vegetable crops provide a rich source of essential nutrients for humanity and represent critical economic values to global rural societies. However, genetic studies of vegetable crops have lagged behind major food crops, such as rice, wheat and maize, thereby limiting the application of molecular breeding. In the past decades, genome sequencing technologies have been increasingly applied in genetic studies and breeding of vegetables. In this review, we recapitulate recent progress on reference genome construction, population genomics and the exploitation of multi-omics datasets in vegetable crops. These advances have enabled an in-depth understanding of their domestication and evolution, and facilitated the genetic dissection of numerous agronomic traits, which jointly expedites the exploitation of state-of-the-art biotechnologies in vegetable breeding. We further provide perspectives of further directions for vegetable genomics and indicate how the ever-increasing omics data could accelerate genetic, biological studies and breeding in vegetable crops.

Automated summary

Vegetable crops are essential for human nutrition and have significant economic value in rural societies. However, genetic studies of these crops have been lagging behind major food crops, which limits the application of molecular breeding. Recent advances in genome sequencing technologies have allowed for the construction of reference genomes and the use of multi-omics datasets in vegetable crop research. These advancements have provided insights into their evolution, allowed for genetic dissection of agronomic traits, and accelerated the application of biotechnologies in vegetable breeding.