Javed Iqbal

Fruit anthocyanins are primary determinants of color, sensory quality, and nutritional value in grapes; however, their endogenous biosynthesis is governed by complex interactions among genetic, environmental, agronomic, and postharvest factors. This review elaborates recent advances in physiology and molecular biology to clarify the biosynthetic mechanisms in grapes, including the coordinated action of structural enzymes, MYB–bHLH–WD40 regulatory complexes, hormone-mediated signaling pathways, and vacuolar transport processes. Key environmental factors, such as temperature fluctuations, light exposure, water availability, and soil properties, regulate these networks, contributing to significant variation in pigmentation profiles across cultivars and growing regions. Strategic agronomic practices, including canopy management, regulated deficit irrigation, balanced nutrient management, and temperature-mitigation techniques, further influence pigmentation by modifying the microclimate of the fruit zone during development. Based on these mechanistic insights, this review evaluates targeted strategies for enhancing anthocyanin accumulation, highlighting recent progress in genetic improvement through CRISPR/Cas genome editing, transgenic approaches, and marker-assisted selection (MAS), which enable precise modulation of biosynthetic and regulatory genes. Complementary postharvest interventions, such as optimized cold storage, modified-atmosphere packaging, hormonal elicitors, and controlled oxidative technologies, provide additional opportunities to maintain or enhance pigment stability after harvest. Collectively, these advances establish a comprehensive framework linking molecular regulation with practical vineyard, breeding, and postharvest strategies, offering an integrated pathway to improve anthocyanin consistency, berry quality, and the phenolic characteristics of grape-derived products.

Heat and waterlogging are critical abiotic stresses that threaten crop productivity, especially as climate change intensifies their frequency and severity. While both stresses independently disrupt essential physiological functions such as photosynthesis, respiration, and nutrient uptake, their underlying mechanisms and adaptive strategies exhibit key differences. This review presents a systematic comparison of plant responses to heat and waterlogging stress, focusing on both their shared and distinct impacts on plant physiology, biochemistry, and molecular regulation. We synthesize recent insights from omics technologies, including transcriptomic and metabolomics, to explore regulatory pathways, hormonal crosstalk (e.g., ABA–ethylene interactions), and metabolic shifts (e.g., fermentation vs. chaperone induction) that drive stress tolerance. This comparative analysis similarly demonstrates that effective plant resilience to climate extremes depends on the coordinated optimization of shared stress management hubs, such as antioxidant defense systems and hormonal crosstalk, together with the deployment of stress-specific adaptive strategies, including molecular chaperone induction under heat stress and anaerobic metabolic reprogramming under waterlogging. By integrating convergent and divergent regulatory pathways, this framework provides a mechanistic and conceptual guide for breeding and engineering crops with durable tolerance to multiple, increasingly co-occurring abiotic stresses.

The main type of saponins occurring in the root of Platycodon grandiflorus (Jacq.) A. DC. are oleanolic acid glycosides. The CYP716 gene family plays a major role in catalyzing the conversion of β-amyrin into oleanolic acid. However, studies on the CYP716 genes in P. grandiflorus are limited, and its evolutionary history remains poorly understood. In this study, 22 PgCYP716 genes were identified, distributed among seven subfamilies. Cis-acting elements of the PgCYP716 promoters were mainly involved in plant hormone regulation and responses to abiotic stresses. PgCYP716A264, PgCYP716A391, PgCYP716A291, and PgCYP716BWv3 genes were upregulated in the root and during saponin accumulation, as shown by RNA-seq analysis, suggesting that these four genes play an important role in saponin synthesis. The results of subcellular localization indicated that these four genes encoded membrane proteins. Furthermore, the catalytic activity of these four genes was proved in the yeast, which catalyzed the conversion of β-amyrin into oleanolic acid. We found that the content of β-amyrin, platycodin D, platycoside E, platycodin D3, and total saponins increased significantly when either of the four genes was over expressed in the transgenic hair root. In addition, the expression of PgSS, PgGPPS2, PgHMGS, and PgSE was also upregulated while these four genes were overexpressed. These data support that these four PgCYP716 enzymes oxidize β-amyrin to produce oleanolic acid, ultimately promoting saponin accumulation by activating the expression of upstream pathway genes. Our results enhanced the understanding of the functional variation among the PgCYP716 gene family involved in triterpenoid biosynthesis and provided a theoretical foundation for improving saponin content and enriching the saponin biosynthetic pathway in P. grandiflorus.

Sugars act as the main energy sources in many fruit and vegetable crops. The biosynthesis and transportation of sugars are crucial and especially contribute to growth and development. SWEET is an important gene family that plays a vital role in plants’ growth, development, and adaptation to various types of stresses (biotic and abiotic). Although SWEET genes have been identified in numerous plant species, there is no information on SWEETs in Potentilla anserina. In the present study, we performed a comprehensive genome-wide bioinformatics analysis and identified a total of 23 candidate PaSWEETs genes in the Potentilla anserina genome, which were randomly distributed on ten different chromosomes. The phylogenetic analysis, chromosomal location, gene structure, specific cis-elements, protein interaction network, and physiological characteristics of these genes were systematically examined. The identified results of the phylogenetic relationship with Arabidopsis thaliana revealed that these PaSWEET genes were divided into four clades (I, II, III, and IV). Moreover, tissue-specific gene expression through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) validation exposed that the identified PaSWEETs were differentially expressed in various tissues (roots, stems, leaves, and flowers). Mainly, the relative fold gene expression in swollen and unswollen tubers effectively revealed that PaSWEETs (7, 9, and 12) were highly expressed (300-, 120-, and 100-fold) in swollen tubers. To further elucidate the function of PaSWEETs (7, 9, and 12), their subcellular location was confirmed by inserting them into tobacco leaves, and it was noted that these genes were present on the cell membrane. On the basis of the overall results, it is suggested that PaSWEETs (7, 9, and 12) are the candidate genes involved in swollen tuber formation in P. anserina. In crux, we speculated that our study provides a valuable theoretical base for further in-depth function analysis of the PaSWEET gene family and their role in tuber development and further enhancing the molecular breeding of Potentilla anserina.