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

Molecular Plant; 2026; IF: 24.1

DOI:10.1016/j.molp.2026.02.008

Abstract

Tartary buckwheat (TB, Fagopyrum tataricum) is an annual crop in the genus Fagopyrum of the family Polygonaceae. It originated in the Himalayan mountains and subsequently spread along the Himalaya–Central Asia–Eastern Europe corridor, leading to widespread cultivation. Because of its strong tolerance to poor soils and broad environmental adaptability, it has long been used as an important crop for disaster relief and for making use of marginal land. TB grain is rich in bioactive compounds, especially flavonoids, which give it multiple medicinal and health promoting effects (Zhang et al., 2021). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has emphasized the importance of TB for food diversification, mountain food security, and sustainable agricultural systems (Huang et al., 2025). Despite this agronomic and nutritional potential, current TB cultivars still exhibit many primitive traits that prevent it from fully serving as a modern staple crop. To address these challenges, adopting ideotype design, exploiting crop wild relatives (CWRs), and developing easy-dehulling varieties will serve as core strategies. Meanwhile, emerging genomics and gene editing technologies offer powerful tools to expedite such breeding efforts.