Omics Meets Phytonutrients in Vegetable Brassicas: For Nutritional Quality Breeding

Consumers understand the health benefits of eating vegetables nowadays and thus there is currently a high demand for phytonutrient products. Recent advances in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics have allowed the investigation of the genetic mechanism involved in Brassica phytonutrient metabolism. We discuss the application and opportunity of an omics approach to reveal the underlying genetics of the accumulation and regulation of various phytonutrients, such as well-known glucosinolates, carotenoids, anthocyanin and vitamins, which may assist in molecular breeding and metabolic engineering designed for nutritional quality enhancement of vegetable Brassica crops.