Genetics, Genomics, and Breeding in Celery (Apium graveolens L.)

Celery (Apium graveolens L.) is a low-calorie vegetable and herbaceous plant species from the Apiaceae family. It is a biennial plant, popular worldwide due to its nutritional and medicinal values. The oleoresin and oil content present in celery seeds are valuable for food flavoring, perfumery, and pharmaceutical applications. Celery is high in fiber and mineral content, including calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, and magnesium. It also contains vitamins B1, B2, B3, A, and C, as well as flavonoids, which aid to regulate blood flow and strengthen the uterine muscles. The crop improvement generally involves two main approaches: conventional breeding and advanced breeding. The conventional breeding approaches such as intergeneric crossings have been used to improve celery. The disease-resistant hybrids have been developed to combat issues like late blight, Fusarium yellows, and celery mosaic virus, as well as pests like Spodoptera exigua and Liriomyza trifolii. Additionally, genomic resources for celery, including EST-SSRs (Expressed Sequence Tag-Simple Sequence Repeats), micro-RNAs, and transcriptome and genome data, are available. However, there is a scarcity of improved celery varieties using advanced biotechnological tools. The existing genomic resources could be valuable for future crop improvement programs, particularly with advanced biotechnological tools like CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing.