Unstable climatic fluctuations and environmental perturbations are increasingly causing multi-trait aberrations in edible oilseed crops, including male sterility, seed set failure, recalcitrance to regeneration, altered anti-nutritional profiles (pungency, isothiocyanates and glucosinolates), oil quality deterioration (elevated eruric acid), weakened antioxidant capacity, and reduced pathogen resistance. These complex and interconnected challenges necessitate an integrative biotechnological approach wherein plant tissue culture techniques are synergistically combined with precise genome editing tools. In this context, the present review critically compiles and evaluates recent advances in regeneration and genetic improvement strategies aimed at mitigating or reverse trait aberrations in major oilseed crops. Both direct and indirect gene transfer approaches, such as CRISPR/Cas systems, Agrobacterium mediated transformation, pollen transformation, particle bombardment (gene gun), electroporation, microinjection, PEG mediated protoplast fusion, somatic embryogenesis, and organogenesis, have been successfully employed in major oilseed crops such as Brassica juncea, Brassica napus, Glycine max, Carthamus tinctorius, Helianthus annuus, Sesamum indicum and Arachis hypogaea, resulting in efficient regeneration of stable, non-chimeric plants. This review examines integrated strategies to restore regeneration competence and accelerate stable trait improvement in major oilseed crops under climate stress. Moreover, tissue culture based regeneration combined with transformation and CRISPR/Cas genome editing is also emphasized in this review for production of reliable, non-chimeric plants with significant trait improvements, including enhanced pod shatter resistance via targeted editing of the indehiscent (IND) gene in Brassica napus, modification of flower color and carotenoid accumulation via editing of the pescadillo (PES) gene in Brassica rapa and improved oil quality through the reduction of erucic acid content by targeting the transparent testa glabra (TTG) gene. Further improvements in regeneration efficiency, accelerated biofortification acceleration, and rapid population advancement have been achieved through emerging technologies, such as speed breeding and soilless culture under controlled environmental conditions. Thus, this review comprehensively synthesizes recent progress in regeneration technologies and genetic enhancement strategies aimed at alleviating trait aberrations in major oilseed crops.
Pandey et al. (Fri,) studied this question.