Omics Technology in Food and Nutritional Security of Agricultural Crops: Role of Extremophiles

The ever-increasing demands for agricultural food and its products in the current era of climate change have put a strong impetus on sustainable agricultural practices. Research on the adaptation biology of extremophiles under extremely diverse and harsh environmental conditions can be a crucial point to be considered. Plant-associated extremophilic microbes and their interaction are known to play a pivotal role in crop survivability and increased crop production. Extremophiles improve soil potency and quality when applied in the form of biopesticides and biofertilizers, thereby sustaining plant growth sufficiently. Multifaceted omics approaches (genomics, metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, phenomics, etc.) help in developing molecular insights to understand adaptive mechanisms of extremophiles at different gene and protein stability levels and discovering novel enzymes or proteins, metabolic pathways associated with their survival mechanism. This chapter briefly discusses and summarizes the diversified importance of extremophiles in the face of multi-omics approaches to unveil the benefits and functions of these organisms in sustainable agriculture and ensuring food safety.