Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is integral to sustainable agriculture and enhances plant resilience to abiotic and biotic stressors. Through their symbiotic association with plant roots, AM improves nutrient and water uptake, activates antioxidant defenses, and facilitates hormonal regulation, contributing to improved plant health and productivity. Plants release strigolactones, which trigger AM spore germination and hyphal branching, a process regulated by genes, such as D27, CCD7, CCD8, and MAX1. AM recognition by plants is mediated by receptor-like kinases (RLKs) and LysM domains, leading to the formation of arbuscules that optimize nutrient exchange. Hormonal regulation plays a pivotal role in this symbiosis; cytokinins enhance AM colonization, auxins support arbuscule formation, and brassinosteroids regulate root growth. Other hormones, such as salicylic acid, gibberellins, ethylene, jasmonic acid, and abscisic acid, also influence AM colonization and stress responses, further bolstering plant resilience. In addition to plant health, AM enhances soil health by improving microbial diversity, soil structure, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration. This symbiosis supports soil pH regulation and pathogen suppression, offering a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizers and improving soil fertility. To maximize AM ’s potential of AM in agriculture, future research should focus on refining inoculation strategies, enhancing compatibility with different crops, and assessing the long-term ecological and economic benefits. Optimizing AM applications is critical for improving agricultural resilience, food security, and sustainable farming practices.

The role of modified biochar in enhancing phosphorus (P) availability is gaining attention as an environmentally friendly approach to address soil P deficiency, a global agricultural challenge. Traditional phosphatic fertilizers, while essential for crop yield, are costly and environmentally detrimental owing to P fixation and leaching. Modified biochar presents a promising alternative with improved properties such as increased porosity, surface area, and cation exchange capacity. This review delves into the variability of biochar properties based on source and production methods and how these can be optimized for effective P adsorption. By adjusting properties such as pH levels and functional groups to align with the phosphate’s zero point of charge, we enhance biochar’s ability to adsorb and retain P, thereby increasing its bioavailability to plants. The integration of nanotechnology and advanced characterization techniques aids in understanding the structural nuances of biochar and its interactions with phosphorus. This approach offers multiple benefits: it enables farmers to use phosphorus more efficiently, reducing the need for traditional fertilizers and thereby minimizing environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions and P leaching. This review also identifies existing research gaps and future opportunities for further biochar modifications. These findings emphasize the significant potential of modified biochar in sustainable agriculture.

Global warming poses a significant threat to plant ecosystems and agricultural productivity, primarily through heat stress (HS), which disrupts photosynthesis, respiration, and overall plant metabolism. Epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and RNA modifications, enable plants to dynamically and heritably adjust gene expression in response to environmental stressors. These mechanisms not only help plants survive immediate stress but also confer stress memory, enhancing their resilience to future HS events. This review explores the mechanisms underlying plant thermotolerance, emphasizing the critical role of epigenetic regulation in adapting to HS. It also highlights how DNA methylation modulates stress-responsive genes, histone modifications facilitate transcriptional memory, and RNA modifications influence mRNA stability and translation. Recent advancements in genome editing technologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9, have enabled precise modifications of epigenetic traits, offering new avenues for breeding climate-resilient crops. The integration of these modern tools with traditional breeding methods holds significant promise for developing crops with enhanced thermotolerance. Despite the potential, challenges such as the stability and heritability of epigenetic marks and the complex interplay between different epigenetic modifications need to be addressed. Future research should focus on elucidating these interactions and identifying reliable epigenetic markers for selection. By leveraging the insights gained from epigenetic studies, we can develop innovative breeding strategies to improve crop resilience and ensure sustainable agricultural productivity in the face of global warming. This review underscores the importance of epigenetic regulation in plant adaptation to heat stress and its potential to revolutionize crop breeding, offering a pathway to secure food production and sustainability under changing climatic conditions.

Traditional plant breeding encompasses repetitive crossing and selection based on morphological traits, while phenotypic selection has been complemented by molecular methods in recent decades. Genome editing with techniques like the CRISPR-Cas9 system is still a novel approach that is being used to make direct modifications to nucleotide sequences of crops. In addition to these genetic alterations, an improved understanding of epigenetic variations such as DNA methylation on the phenotype of plants has led to increased opportunities to accelerate crop improvement. DNA methylation is the most widely studied epigenetic mark in plants and other eukaryotes. These epigenetic marks are highly conserved and involved in altering the activities and functions of developmental signals by catalyzing changes in the chromatin structure through methylation and demethylation. Cytosine methylation (5mC) is the most prevalent modification found in DNA. However, recent identification of N6-methyladenosine (6mA) in plants starts to reveal their critical role in plant development. Epigenetic modifications are actively involved in creating the phenotype by controlling essential biological mechanisms. Epigenetic modifications could be heritable and metastable causing variation in epigenetic status between or within species. However, both genetic and heritable epigenetic variation has the potential to drive natural variation. Hence, epigenome editing might help overcome some of the shortcomings of genome editing (such as gene knockout), which can have significant off-target effects and only enables the loss of a gene’s function. In this review, we have discussed the mechanism underlying DNA methylation and demethylation in plants. Methyltransferases and demethylases are involved in catalyzing specific types of modification. We also discuss the potential role of DNA modifications in crop improvement for meeting the requirements of sustainable and green agriculture.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a fundamental crop essential for both human and animal consumption. Addressing the challenge of enhancing wheat yield involves sophisticated applications of molecular genetics and genomic techniques. This review synthesizes current research identifying and characterizing pivotal genes that impact traits such as grain size, number, and weight, critical factors influencing overall yield. Key genes including TaSPL17, ABP7, TaGNI, TaCKX6, TaGS5, TaDA1, WAPO1, TaRht1, TaTGW-7A, TaGW2, TaGS5-3A, TaSus2-2A, TaSus2-2B, TaSus1-7A, and TaSus1-7B are examined for their roles in these traits. The review also explores genes responsive to environmental changes, which are increasingly significant under current climate variability. Multi-trait regulatory genes and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that contribute to these traits are discussed, highlighting their dual influences on grain size and yield. Furthermore, the paper underscores the utility of emerging technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9, Case13, and multi-omics approaches. These innovations are instrumental for future discoveries and are poised to revolutionize wheat breeding by enabling precise genetic enhancements. Facing unprecedented challenges from climate change, the identification and utilization of these candidates is crucial. This review aims to be a comprehensive resource for researchers, providing an integrative understanding of complex traits in wheat and proposing new avenues for research and crop improvement strategies.