Wei Li, Hao Lin, Xiang Lu, Yang Liu, Yuqi He, Zhirong Wang, Kaixuan Zhang, Muriel Quinet, Sun-Hee Woo, Dagmar Janovska, NoraMendler-Drienyovszki, Mateja Germ, Ivan Kreft, Meiliang Zhou

Molecular Plant; 2026; IF: 32.7

DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2026.02.008

Tartary buckwheat (TB; Fagopyrum tataricum) is an annual crop in the genus Fagopyrum of the family Polygonaceae. It originated in the Himalayas and subsequently spread along the Himalaya–Central Asia–Eastern Europe corridor, leading to widespread cultivation. TB grain is rich in bioactive compounds, especially flavonoids, which give it multiple medicinal and health-promoting effects. Despite this agronomic and nutritional potential, current TB cultivars still exhibit many primitive traits that prevent them from fully serving as a modern staple crop. We systematically propose a future breeding strategy to realize a "green revolution" of TB. We put forward three core breeding pillars: construction of dwarf and compact, lodging-resistant, low-shattering, and determinate ideal plant architecture; innovation of perennial high-flavonoid varieties via wild relatives; and deployment of easy-dehulling trait governed by FtXIP to obtain high-quality groats. Furthermore, we elaborate multi-omics-driven precision breeding to accelerate breeding progress, covering large-scale germplasm screening, targeted mutagenesis and CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing for gene functional validation, and pan-genome-assisted favorable allele mining and genomic selection. TB is uniquely positioned at the crossroads of nutrition, health, and ecological resilience. The ideotype and breeding roadmap outlined here offer a clear and practical path toward a “green revolution” in TB.