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Developing rice types with shorter life cycle without compromising yield is vital for sustainable agriculture, as it can significantly reduce water and fertilizer consumption while enabling early harvest. Despite recent advancements in identifying the genes associated with heading date, the intricate regulatory network governing this process remains largely unexplored. In rice, one such gene, GHD7 (QTL for grain‐heading‐date on chromosome 7), encodes a CCT (CONSTANS, CONSTANS‐LIKE and TIMING OF CAB1) domain protein and plays a pivotal role in regulating flowering time and associated developmental processes. To gain insight into the role of OsGHD7 in improving yield, we have overexpressed OsGHD7 in the widely cultivated and photoperiod‐insensitive rice variety IR64. This led to notable phenotypic changes in rice, including tiller number and grain number (66% increase), along with the promotion of early flowering (8–9 days preponement). Interestingly, these plants also exhibited enhanced tolerance to drought and salinity stress and showed better post‐stress recovery. This study emphasizes the potential of manipulating the multifaceted genetic determinants of key traits to optimize rice productivity under changing climate conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saffron stigma, derived from Crocus sativus L., has long been revered in global traditional medicine and continues to hold significant market value. However, despite the extensive focus on saffron stigma, the therapeutic potential of other floral components remains underexplored, primarily due to limited insights into their complex molecular architectures and chemical diversity. To address this gap, we performed a comprehensive metabolomic analysis of various floral organs utilizing advanced analytical platforms, including GC–MS and UPLC‐MS/MS. This in‐depth profiling revealed a diverse array of 248 metabolites, encompassing amino acids, sugar derivatives, fatty acids, flavonoids, vitamins, polyamines, organic acids, and a broad spectrum of secondary metabolites. Distinct correlation patterns among these metabolites were identified through PCA and PLS‐DA, highlighting unique metabolomic signatures inherent to each floral organ. We further integrated these metabolomic findings with our transcriptomic data, enabling a detailed understanding of the molecular and metabolic variations across different floral organs. The pronounced abundance of differentially expressed genes and metabolites in the stamen (424), leaf (345), tepal (196), stigma (177), and corm (133) underscores the intricate regulatory networks governing source‐to‐sink partitioning and dynamic metabolic processes. Notably, our study identified several bioactive compounds, including crocin, picrocrocin, crocetin, safranal, cannabielsoin, quercetin, prenylnaringenin, isorhamnetin, pelargonidin, kaempferol, and gallic acid, all of which exhibit potential therapeutic properties. In conclusion, this comprehensive analysis significantly enhances our understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving the biosynthesis of apocarotenoids, cannabinoids, anthocyanins, and flavonoids in saffron, thereby providing valuable insights and paving the way for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nepenthes are carnivorous plants that colonize habitats poor in soil nutrients. To survive, Nepenthes develop pitchers capable of capturing and digesting attracted prey. Prey‐derived nutrients are then absorbed to support plant growth and reproduction. So far, pitcher formation in Nepenthes is a poorly understood biological process. To shed light on the formation of Nepenthes pitchers, we grew dissected shoot apices of 3‐month‐old N. khasiana seedlings in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium of varying strengths viz. full‐strength MS (1 MS), quarter‐strength MS (1/4 MS), and one‐eighth strength MS (1/8 MS), including those lacking nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) and in the presence of N‐1‐naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA). We sequenced the transcriptome and performed gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to determine changes in gene expression patterns and primary metabolite accumulations in response to the varying nutrient conditions. Shoots grown in 1 MS or NPA‐containing 1/4 MS and 1/8 MS failed to develop pitchers. Remarkably, pitcher formation is restored when N was removed from 1 MS. Transcriptomic response to nutrient‐sufficient and nutrient‐deficient conditions are associated with the enrichment of several defence‐related genes, including two JA‐mediated defence response genes, WRKY51 and WRKY11, respectively. Further, metabolomic response to the varying nutrient conditions identifies glutamic acid as a key metabolite, accumulating at lower and higher levels in shoots with and without pitchers, respectively. Together, our findings suggest that failure to form pitchers may be associated with the suppression of the JA‐signalling pathway, whereas the induction of the JA‐mediated defence response is linked to pitcher formation in N. khasiana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]