Molecular phylogenetics and evolutionary history of Bienertia sinuspersici: implications for crop improvement in...

This review's scientific value is to systematically review existing literature on B. sinuspersici ensuring a structure of exploiting such genetic adapt reactions to counter climate change impacts on agriculture. This work highlights the need for such interdisciplinarity to bring such discoveries into fruition of improved, salinity and drought, tolerant crops, providing novel tactics toward food production from saline and arid landscapes. This paper argues that Bienertia sinuspersici has revolutionary genes for enhancing crop varieties and global food security in regions that are affected by climate change, synthesises current knowledge of the molecular phylogenetics, evolution, adaptive physiology, and translational potential of Bienertia sinuspersici, with particular emphasis on its application to crop improvement. As one of the few known plants performing fully functional single-cell C₄ photosynthesis in a halophytic context, B. sinuspersici provides a valuable genetic reservoir for enhancing salt and drought tolerance in staple cereals such as rice (Oryza sativa) and wheat (Triticum aestivum). We examine the physiological and molecular traits that enable B. sinuspersici to thrive under extreme abiotic stress including ion homeostasis, osmoprotectant biosynthesis, and photosynthetic efficiency and evaluate the prospects for transferring these traits into glycophytic crops through transgenic approaches and marker-assisted selection. Key findings centre on stress-responsive genes, notably high-affinity potassium transporters (HKT1) and sodium/hydrogen exchangers (NHX1), which are strongly associated with salinity tolerance. Recent advances in CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) further expand the toolkit for introgressing B. sinuspersici-derived traits into food crops, with direct implications for global food security. However, significant gaps remain, particularly the absence of multi-year, multi-location field trials validating these traits under realistic agronomic conditions. The principal contribution of this review is a systematic integration of the available literature on B. sinuspersici, framed as a roadmap for harnessing its adaptive genetic resources to mitigate the agricultural impacts of climate change. We argue that realizing this potential will require sustained interdisciplinary collaboration spanning molecular biology, plant breeding, and agronomy, and that B. sinuspersici offers transformative genetic resources for developing salinity- and drought-tolerant cultivars suited to saline and arid production systems.