The future of food and sustainability of the staple food crops are of utmost importance in the 21st century. Micronutrient deficiency, for example, in iron and zinc, is a common cause of human diseases. Mineral content of the staple food crops has therefore crosscutting importance for food engineering and planetary health. Finger millet, a staple food of agricultural importance worldwide, is rich in iron and zinc, and an ideal model to study the prospects of biofortified foods in times of climate change. We report here a multiomics study of the iron and zinc homeostasis in the finger millet. We identified and characterized 15 candidate genes potentially involved in iron and zinc homeostasis pathways in the finger millet. Structural and functional annotation of the candidate genes revealed a high similarity index with their respective homologs (Oryza sativa, Triticum aestivum, Zea mays, Hordeum vulgare, and Setaria italica). Transcriptome-wide expression analysis showed that genes involved in uptake and translocation of iron and zinc are highly expressed in the GP-1 genotype, while those involved in bioavailability of iron and zinc are expressed more in the GP-45 genotype of the finger millet. In conclusion, finger millet, being a stress-resilient crop, utilizes a combination of strategies in iron and zinc homeostasis pathway, which appear to play an important role in food crop acquisition of iron and zinc, despite environmentally limiting conditions. These data offer molecular insights on iron and zinc accumulation and paves the way for new strategies toward staple food crop with mineral biofortification.

中文翻译：

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指小米中铁和锌稳态的组学研究：气候变化时代微量营养素缺乏的生物强化食品？

粮食的未来和主食作物的可持续性在 21 世纪至关重要。例如，铁和锌的微量营养素缺乏是人类疾病的常见原因。因此，主食作物的矿物质含量对食品工程和地球健康具有交叉重要性。手指小米是世界范围内具有重要农业意义的主食，富含铁和锌，是研究气候变化时期生物强化食品前景的理想模型。我们在这里报告了手指小米中铁和锌稳态的多组学研究。我们鉴定并表征了可能参与手指小米中铁和锌稳态途径的 15 个候选基因。候选基因的结构和功能注释显示与它们各自的同源物有很高的相似度。水稻、小麦、玉米、大麦和狗尾草）。全转录组表达分析表明，参与铁和锌摄取和易位的基因在 GP-1 基因型中高表达，而参与铁和锌生物利用度的基因在指黍的 GP-45 基因型中表达更多。总之，作为一种抗逆作物，指黍利用了铁和锌稳态途径中的策略组合，尽管环境条件有限，但这些策略似乎在粮食作物获取铁和锌方面发挥着重要作用。这些数据提供了关于铁和锌积累的分子见解，并为采用矿物质生物强化的主粮作物的新策略铺平了道路。