Summary: Methylglyoxal (MG), a reactive carbonyl compound, is generated during metabolism in living systems. However, under stress, its levels increase rapidly leading to cellular toxicity. Although the generation of MG is spontaneous in a cell, its detoxification is essentially catalyzed by the glyoxalase enzymes. In plants, modulation of MG content via glyoxalases influences diverse physiological functions ranging from regulating growth and development to conferring stress tolerance. Interestingly, there has been a preferred expansion in the number of isoforms of these enzymes in plants, giving them high plasticity in their actions for accomplishing diverse roles. Future studies need to focus on unraveling the interplay of these multiple isoforms of glyoxalases possibly contributing towards the unique adaptability of plants to diverse environments.

Glyoxalase pathway is the primary route for metabolism of methylglyoxal (MG), a toxic ubiquitous metabolite that affects redox homeostasis. It neutralizes MG using Glyoxalase I and Glyoxalase II (GLYI and GLYII) enzymes in the presence of reduced glutathione. In addition, there also exists a shorter route for the MG detoxification in the form of Glyoxalase III (GLYIII) enzymes, which can convert MG into D-lactate in a single-step without involving glutathione. GLYIII proteins in different systems demonstrate diverse functional capacities and play a vital role in oxidative stress response. To gain insight into their evolutionary patterns, here we studied the evolution of GLYIII enzymes across prokaryotes and eukaryotes, with special emphasis on plants. GLYIII proteins are characterized by the presence of DJ-1_PfpI domains thereby, belonging to the DJ-1_PfpI protein superfamily. Our analysis delineated evolution of double DJ-1_PfpI domains in plant GLYIII. Based on sequence and structural characteristics, plant GLYIII enzymes could be categorized into three different clusters, which followed different evolutionary trajectories. Importantly, GLYIII proteins from monocots and dicots group separately in each cluster and the each of the two domains of these proteins also cluster differentially. Overall, our findings suggested that GLYIII proteins have undergone significant evolutionary changes in plants, which is likely to confer diversity and flexibility in their functions.

Orphan crops, also known as minor crops, smart foods, and superfoods, have attracted great attention recently because of their unique ability to grow in resource‐poor marginal lands, and under harsh environmental conditions without any intensive agricultural care. These crops possess inherent tolerance against different abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, cold, and heat. Recent advancements in genomic resources and high‐throughput phenotyping platforms have provided opportunities to explore the untapped potential of orphan crops to identify novel gene source(s) and mechanism(s) for developing abiotic stress‐tolerant crops. Moreover, genomics‐assisted investigations into the various physiological and molecular mechanism(s) could provide useful insights into stress tolerance mechanisms in these plants. Nevertheless, translating the hidden power of the tolerant gene pools from the orphan crops into major staple crops for enhancing their stress tolerance while maintaining yield is a challenging task. The contemporary tools of genomics can be used to unravel the secret of stress tolerance in orphan crops and employ these untapped genes for tailoring stress‐tolerant crop varieties to ensure global food security in the era of climate change.