Omics-driven improvement of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) for climate resilience, oil quality, and high-value metabolites under changing environments

Safflower is an Asteraceae oilseed crop valued for its high-quality unsaturated fatty acids (≈90% oleic and linoleic acids), natural floral pigments, and diverse bioactive compounds. These attributes underpin its applications in functional foods, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and various industrial sectors. Safflower inherent tolerance to drought, heat, cold, and salinity positions it as a climate-resilient alternative to more temperature-sensitive oilseeds; however, omics-based research in this crop remains comparatively fragmented. This review consolidates recent advances across major omics domains. Genomics covers chromosome-scale assemblies, GWAS panels, QTL mapping, and diagnostic candidate genes for molecular breeding. Transcriptomics summarizes regulatory networks for flavonoid and oil biosynthesis, stress-responsive transcription factors ( NAC , WRKY , bZIP , AP2/ERF ), and seed developmental programs. The proteomics section addresses stress-inducible, therapeutic, and storage/lipid metabolic proteins linked to quality and stress adaptation. Metabolomics outlines quinochalcone and flavonoid pathway architecture, color-specific metabolic profiles, and emerging clinical and nutraceutical applications. Phenomics highlights UAV-based high-throughput phenotyping, RGB and multispectral imaging for salt and drought screening, and machine-learning-assisted germplasm authentication. Epigenomics focuses on DNA methylation and miRNA-mediated regulation. Finally, lipidomics and metagenomics consider oil authentication biomarkers, refining optimization, and microbiome-driven nutrient cycling shaping medicinally important compounds. Despite these advances, critical gaps remain in multi-omics integration, CRISPR-based functional validation, genomic selection pipelines, and detailed characterization of root–shoot architecture under combined stresses. Addressing these gaps will advance mechanistic understanding of climate resilience and enable the development of stress-tolerant, high-yielding safflower cultivars with improved oil quality and bioactive profiles, thereby supporting climate-resilient production systems and high-value safflower-based products at scale.

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