In recent years, a renewed interest in novel crops has been developing due to the environmental issues associated with the sustainability of agricultural practices. In particular, a cover crop, Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz, belonging to the Brassicaceae family, is attracting the scientific community’s interest for several desirable features. It is related to the model species Arabidopsis thaliana, and its oil extracted from the seeds can be used either for food and feed, or for industrial uses such as biofuel production. From an agronomic point of view, it can grow in marginal lands with little or no inputs, and is practically resistant to the most important pathogens of Brassicaceae. Although cultivated in the past, particularly in northern Europe and Italy, in the last century, it was abandoned. For this reason, little breeding work has been conducted to improve this plant, also because of the low genetic variability present in this hexaploid species. In this review, we summarize the main works on this crop, focused on genetic improvement with three main objectives: yield, seed oil content and quality, and reduction in glucosinolates content in the seed, which are the main anti-nutritional substances present in camelina. We also report the latest advances in utilising classical plant breeding, transgenic approaches, and CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing.

Castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) originated in East Africa and then diffused to warm-temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions of the world. The high lipid content in the castor beans is extracted for use in pharmaceutical and industrial applications. The castor oil lipid profile is naturally composed of 90% ricinoleic acid and the remaining 10% is mainly composed of linoleic, oleic, stearic, and linolenic fatty acids. The highly toxic compound ricin within the seeds is insoluble in oil, making castor oil free from this toxin and safe to use for industrial and cosmetic applications. Among the main uses of castor oil are reported industrial uses such as component for lubricants, paints, coatings, polymers, emulsifiers, cosmetics, and medicinal uses as a laxative. There is also significant commercial potential for utilization of the whole castor bean plant such as animal feed, fertilizer, biofuel, and also for phytoremediation. Several breeding programs have been planned to improve the castor’s characteristics needed for its current or potential uses. In this review, after summarizing data on castor bean agronomy and uses, we focus on the main advances in Castor bean classical and biotechnological breeding programs, underlining the high potential of this oil crop. In particular, the main challenges of castor breeding programs are to increase yield, mainly through the selection of growth habits allowing mechanized harvest, and beneficial compound content, mainly the oil, and to decrease the toxic compounds content, mainly ricin.

The ability of plants to release chemicals that affect the growth of other plants offers potential benefits for weed management and sustainable agriculture. This review explores the use of Camelina sativa as a promising cover crop with weed control potential. Camelina sativa, known for its high oil content and adaptability to diverse climatic conditions, exhibits allelopathic potential by releasing chemical compounds that inhibit weed growth. The crop’s vigorous growth and canopy architecture contribute to effective weed suppression, reducing the prevalence and spread of associated pathogens. Furthermore, the chemical compounds released by camelina through the solubilization of compounds from leaves by rain, root exudation, or deriving from microbial-mediated decay of camelina’s tissues interfere with the growth of neighbouring plants, indicating allelopathic interactions. The isolation and identification of benzylamine and glucosinolates as allelochemicals in camelina highlight their role in plant–plant interactions. However, the studies carried out on this species are outdated, and it cannot be excluded that other chemicals deriving from the breakdown of the glucosinolates or belonging to other classes of specialized metabolites can be involved in its allelopathic potential. Camelina sativa also demonstrates disease suppression capabilities, with glucosinolates exhibiting fungicidal, nematocidal, and bactericidal activities. Additionally, camelina cover crops have been found to reduce root diseases and enhance growth and yields in corn and soybeans. This review sheds light on the allelopathic and agronomic benefits of Camelina sativa, emphasizing its potential as a sustainable and integrated pest management strategy in agriculture.

In marginal lands, cereal landraces continue to be important in agricultural production, whereas hybrids lose their competitive advantage. In this context, selection for adaptation to each environment is particularly important in crops grown under unfavourable conditions, e.g., mountain areas. In this work, from a panel of traditional and modern varieties, mixtures and evolutionary populations, a randomised block experiment was established to select the most productive and suitable wheat and rye varieties specific for the Antrona Valley. The nutritional analysis of each flour was carried out. The results obtained in two years of varietal comparison suggested that rye is more suitable than wheat for growing in this environment: Alpina rye showed the highest yield/m² and the highest ash content (1.87% ± 0.03%; p < 0.05) compared to other varieties, indicating it as suitable for the baking process. Among wheats, San Pastore showed the highest number of ears/m² (411 and 350; p < 0.05) compared to others. However, in a context of climate change, the cultivation of Solibam could ensure yield stability, thanks to the high variability within the evolutionary population. Overall, our results demonstrated the possible reintroduction of the cereal supply chain in the Valley and the resumption of the historic rye bread production.

In recent years, the interest in increasingly sustainable agriculture has also turned attention towards new cover crops suitable for use in marginal areas that could enter the food chain as new protein and oil sources or for biodiesel production. In this scenario, Camelina sativa is a perfect crop to study. Camelina is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the Brassicaceae which is interesting in terms of its oil content, since the seeds contain about 40% oils, with a high level of polyunsaturated fatty acids (30–40% alpha linolenic acid, 15–25% linoleic acid, 15% oleic acid and about 15% eicosenoic acid). It is a hexaploid species (2n = 40, genome size ~782 Mb) characterized by rapid growth, a short life cycle (85–100 days for spring varieties, 190–210 for autumn varieties) and low input cultivation needs. However, its use in feed and food is limited by the presence of glucosinolates (GLS). GLS are sulfur molecules involved in plant defense. In recent years, they have been studied not only as antinutritionals but also for their anti-carcinogenic effects against chronic inflammatory and heart diseases and for their use as natural pesticides. Given the recent interest in camelina and its highly nutritious oil, eight pure lines and a synthetic population were compared in two different growing periods, spring and winter. In this work, the genetic materials were characterized for different phenotypic traits, yields and yield components, and bromatological and glucosinolate content. The results confirmed that in North Italy, camelina has higher yields if cultivated in the autumn–winter period (about 2 t/ha vs. 0.6 t/ha); furthermore, a negative correlation was found between spring and winter yields, indicating that varieties that produce more in winter cultivation produce less in spring cultivation. Moreover, to our knowledge, it is the first work in which a synthetic population of Camelina sativa has been tested and proved to be a valid solution for use in various environments both for its adaptability and for the low content of glucosinolates (about 17 mmol/kg).

The introduction of mechanized agricultural practices after the Second World War and the use of productive hybrids led to a gradual disappearance of local maize varieties. However, 13 landraces are still cultivated in North-Western Italy, in the Lombardy region; those that are cultivated in mountainous areas (roughly up to 1200 m in altitude) are often characterized by the pointed shape of their seeds (i.e., “Nero Spinoso”, “Rostrato Rosso di Rovetta”, “Spinato di Gandino” and “Scagliolo di Carenno”) and the presence of pigments (i.e., “Nero Spinoso”, “Rostrato Rosso di Rovetta”). The pointed shape of the seeds is an ancient characteristic of maize-ancestors, which negatively affects the yield by not allowing optimal “filling” of the ear. This study reports work on four different Italian varieties of pointed maize in order to assess the genetic bases of the “pointed character” and to try to explain the reasons for this adaptation to the mountain environment. The data obtained by genetic analysis, seed air-drying modeling and thermographic camera observations demonstrated that the “pointed trait” is controlled by the same genes across the different varieties studied and suggested that this peculiar shape has been selected in mountainous areas because it promotes faster drying of the seed, with the presence of pigments implementing this effect.