Transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics interventions prompt crop improvement against metal(loid) toxicity

The escalating challenges posed by metal(loid) toxicity in agricultural ecosystems, exacerbated by rapid climate change\r\nand anthropogenic pressures, demand urgent attention. Soil contamination is a critical issue because it significantly impacts\r\ncrop productivity. The widespread threat of metal(loid) toxicity can jeopardize global food security due to contaminated\r\nfood supplies and pose environmental risks, contributing to soil and water pollution and thus impacting the whole ecosystem.\r\nIn this context, plants have evolved complex mechanisms to combat metal(loid) stress. Amid the array of innovative\r\napproaches, omics, notably transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, have emerged as transformative tools, shedding\r\nlight on the genes, proteins, and key metabolites involved in metal(loid) stress responses and tolerance mechanisms.\r\nThese identified candidates hold promise for developing high-yielding crops with desirable agronomic traits. Computational\r\nbiology tools like bioinformatics, biological databases, and analytical pipelines support these omics approaches by harnessing\r\ndiverse information and facilitating the mapping of genotype-to-phenotype relationships under stress conditions. This\r\nreview explores: (1) the multifaceted strategies that plants use to adapt to metal(loid) toxicity in their environment; (2) the\r\nlatest findings in metal(loid)-mediated transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics studies across various plant species;\r\n(3) the integration of omics data with artificial intelligence and high-throughput phenotyping; (4) the latest bioinformatics\r\ndatabases, tools and pipelines for single and/or multi-omics data integration; (5) the latest insights into stress adaptations\r\nand tolerance mechanisms for future outlooks; and (6) the capacity of omics advances for creating sustainable and resilient\r\ncrop plants that can thrive in metal(loid)-contaminated environments.