Sesame seeds and their edible oil are highly nutritious and rich in mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Bioactive compounds such as sterols, tocopherols, and sesamol provide significant medicinal benefits. The high oil content (50%) and favorable mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acid balance, as well as resilience to water stress, make sesame a promising candidate crop for global agricultural expansion. However, sesame production faces challenges such as low yields, poor response to agricultural inputs, and losses due to capsule dehiscence. To enhance yield, traits like determinate growth, dwarfism, a high harvest index, non-shattering capsules, disease resistance, and photoperiod sensitivity are needed. These traits can be achieved through variation or induced mutation breeding. Crossbreeding methods often result in unwanted genetic changes. The gene editing CRISPR/Cas9 technology has the potential to suppress detrimental alleles and improve the fatty acid profile by inhibiting polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis. Even though sesame is an orphan crop, it has entered the genomic era, with available sequences assisting molecular breeding efforts. This progress aids in associating single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and simple sequence repeats (SSR) with key economic traits, as well as identifying genes related to adaptability, oil production, fatty acid synthesis, and photosynthesis. Additionally, transcriptomic research can reveal genes involved in abiotic stress responses and adaptation to diverse climates. The mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) can identify loci linked to key traits such as capsule size, seed count per capsule, and capsule number per plant. This article reviews recent advances in sesame breeding, discusses ongoing challenges, and explores potential strategies for future improvement. Hence, integrating advanced genomic tools and breeding strategies provides promising ways to enhance sesame production to meet global demands.

Success artificial pollination with viable pollen is crucial process in the production chain of date palms. This study evaluated the impact of pollen storage temperature and duration, pollination time following spathe cracking, and the hour of daytime on pollen viability, germinability, fruit set and yield of 'Deglet Nour' date palm cultivar. In in vitro tests, fresh pollen showed the maximum viability (96.3%) and germination (85%) but it decreased thereafter upon the storage temperature (28, 4 and −30 °C) and duration (3, 6, 9 and 12 months). In this respect, pollen stored at −30 °C retained highest viability and germinability followed by those stored at 4 and then at 28 °C. In filed experiments, fruit set was 85, 75, 65, and 45% with pollination using fresh pollen, or pollen stored at −30, 4 and 28 °C, respectively. Fruit set was 95%, 75%, and less than 50%, for pollination performed on the same day of spathe cracking, 6 and 12 days later, respectively. The highest fruit set percentage and yield/bunch were obtained with pollination performed between 12.0 pm and 15.0 pm in contrast to 8.0–11.0 am or 16.0–17.0.

Non-native pests, climate change, and their interactions are likely to alter relationships between trees and tree-associated organisms with consequences for forest health. To understand and predict such changes, factors structuring tree-associated communities need to be determined. Here, we analysed the data consisting of records of insects and fungi collected from dormant twigs from 155 tree species at 51 botanical gardens or arboreta in 32 countries. Generalized dissimilarity models revealed similar relative importance of studied climatic, host-related and geographic factors on differences in tree-associated communities. Mean annual temperature, phylogenetic distance between hosts and geographic distance between locations were the major drivers of dissimilarities. The increasing importance of high temperatures on differences in studied communities indicate that climate change could affect tree-associated organisms directly and indirectly through host range shifts. Insect and fungal communities were more similar between closely related vs. distant hosts suggesting that host range shifts may facilitate the emergence of new pests. Moreover, dissimilarities among tree-associated communities increased with geographic distance indicating that human-mediated transport may serve as a pathway of the introductions of new pests. The results of this study highlight the need to limit the establishment of tree pests and increase the resilience of forest ecosystems to changes in climate.

The aim of this study was to apply some of the vegetative and fruit traits which are easily recognised to identify the variation and the diversity level of the most famous Sudanese date palm cultivars grown on farm in the northern region of Sudan. Sixteen phenotypic traits consisting of ten quantitative and six qualitative characteristics were used for describing the vegetative and fruit characteristics. The principal components analysis (PCA) and UPGMA clustering were used to analyse the data set. The results revealed high variability among the cultivars according to PCA. Fourteen out of the sixteen quantitative and qualitative traits investigated showed a strong discriminating factor suggesting their possible uses in the initiation of Sudanese date palm morphological descriptor list. UPGMA clustering exhibited strong relationship between some cultivars according to their fruit and vegetative characteristics similarity. Based on morphological traits, cultivars Wad-laggi (Lag) and Wad-khateeb (Kha) formed a distinct group suggesting their close relatedness. Similarly, the cultivars sharing the dry fruit texture such as Gondaila (Gon), Tamoda (Tam), Kolmah (Kol), and Barkawi (Bar) were grouped together according to their vegetative traits. Further investigations on Sudanese date palm using more phenotypic characteristics are recommended in order to shape and complete the set of the morphological descriptor list.

Although the main goal of traditional farming is to produce food, it can play an important role in conservation of genetic resources. This paper reports a study, which explored the diversity of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars grown by farmers and their preferences for different cultivars. The possibilities of using farms as sites for conserving genetic resources are discussed. The data for the study were collected from personal interviews that involved randomly selected date palm farmers in the Northern State and River Nile State, Sudan. Ordered and binary logit models were used to account for possible factors influencing the diversity of cultivars grown by farmers and preferences for different cultivars, respectively. The results showed that the cultivars grown by the respondents vary widely. On average, the Northern State respondents grew twice the number of cultivars as those in the River Nile State. Of all the date palm cultivars, the Barakawi was the most preferred. The diversity of the cultivars grown by the respondents and their preferences were mainly influenced by factors, such as farm location, drought, uses of date palm, years of farming experience, education, income from date palm and household size. The findings will help in designing a more sustainable date palm breeding program, as well as a genetic resources conservation strategy.

Availability of efficient male genotypes is critical for successful artificial pollination and regular bearing of female date palms. The effect of flowering stage and storage conditions on pollen quality of six male date palm genotypes encoded ‘ABD1′, ‘P4′, ‘P3′, ‘P8′, ‘P7′ and ‘P13′were evaluated. Pollen collected from spathes developed at the middle of flowering stage exhibited the best viability (90%) and germinability (85%) compared to other stages. Pollen viability was greater than 90%, except for ‘P8′ that exhibited 80%, while, germinability greatly varied among the genotypes. Pollen quality decreased during 4 months of storage upon genotype and temperature, with a minimum reduction at −30 °C followed by 4 °C. Heat shock exposure (33 ± 2 °C) following storage revealed that pollen stored at −30 °C or 4 °C should be used for pollination on the same day of take out to avoid dramatic quality loss. The ‘ABD1′, an early flowering genotype, proved highest pollen quality both at fresh stage and after storage. While, the ‘P3′, a late flowering genotype, retained its pollen quality during storage. However, the ‘P13′ genotype exhibited excellent pollen quality when fresh, but greatly loses germinability during storage.