Genomic and Breeding Resources in Parsley: Status and Way Forward

Parsley, a vital culinary and medicinal herb from the Apiaceae family, boasts significant nutritional and therapeutic benefits. Originated from the Mediterranean region, this wonderful herb is a coffer of many phenolic compounds and flavonoids such as apigenin and apiin, essential oils primarily consisting of myristicin and apiol, as well as coumarins. Genetic resources of parsley are considerably represented in ex situ collections worldwide, and the passport data can be retrieved from several database sources. However, the genetic diversity of this crop needs to be conserved with immediate attention to avoid genetic erosion. Decades of breeding efforts in parsley including selection and interspecific and intervarietal hybridization have led to the development of numerous high-yielding cultivars with biotic stress tolerance and enrichment in essential oil. Despite these achievements, the production potential of parsley of different categories remains significantly low. The growing demand for high and sustainable parsley production drives the scientific communities to increase breeding efficiency, ensuring a continuous supply of improved cultivars. Integration of conventional breeding strategies with cutting-edge molecular breeding tools deploying genomic resources can pave the way for cultivar development in shortest possible time. Pressing need has been felt to enrich the genomic resources vis a vis genetic resources toward development of high-yielding parsley cultivars with key adaptive traits against the climatic vagaries along with nutritional benefit and therapeutic importance. The present chapter delves with the current status of genetic and genomic resources, conventional breeding interventions extended for parsley improvement program, and the future applications of omics that enabled breeding approaches and transgenic tools to develop more resilient high-yielding parsley cultivars to meet the future goals.