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Perilla (Perilla frutescens), a traditional medicinal and oilseed crop in Asia, contains extremely high levels of polyunsaturated α-linolenic acid (ALA) (up to 60.9%) in its seeds. ALA biosynthesis is a multistep process catalyzed by fatty acid desaturases (FADs), but the FAD gene family in perilla has not been systematically characterized. Here, we identified 42 PfFADs in the perilla genome and classified them into five subfamilies. Subfamily members of PfFADs had similar exon/intron structures, conserved domain sequences, subcellular localizations, and cis-regulatory elements in their promoter regions. PfFAD s also possessed various expression patterns. PfFAD3.1 was highly expressed in the middle stage of seed development, whereas PfFAD7/8.3 and PfFAD7/8.5 were highly expressed in leaf and later stages of seed development, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the evolutionary features coincided with the functionalization of different subfamilies of PUFA desaturase. Heterologous overexpression of PfFAD3.1 in Arabidopsis thaliana seeds increased ALA content by 17.68%–37.03%. These findings provided insights into the characteristics and functions of PfFAD genes in perilla. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millets are small seeded cereal crops predominantly cultivated and consumed by resource-poor farmers in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. Millets possess rich nutrients and a climate resilience property when compared to the other cereals such as rice and wheat. Millet improvement using modern genetic and genomic tools is falling behind other cereal crops due to their cultivation being restricted to less developed countries. Genome editing tools have been successfully applied to major cereal crops and, as a result, many key traits have been introduced into rice, wheat and maize. However, genome editing tools have not yet been used for most millets although they possess rich nutrients. The foxtail millet is the only millet utilised up to now for genome editing works. Limited genomic resources and lack of efficient transformation systems may slow down genome editing in millets. As millets possess many important traits of agricultural importance, high resolution studies with genome editing tools will help to understand the specific mechanism and transfer such traits to major cereals in the future. This review covers the current status of genome editing studies in millets and discusses the future prospects of genome editing in millets to understand key traits of nutrient fortification and develop climate resilient crops in the future., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)