In the dynamic landscape of agriculture and food science, incorporating emergent crops appears as a pioneering solution for diversifying agriculture, unlocking possibilities for sustainable cultivation and nutritional bolstering food security, and creating economic prospects amid evolving environmental and market conditions with positive impacts on human health. This review explores the potential of utilizing emergent crops in Mediterranean environments under current climate scenarios, emphasizing the manifold benefits of agricultural and food system diversification and assessing the impact of environmental factors on their quality and consumer health. Through a deep exploration of the resilience, nutritional value, and health impacts of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) such as quinoa, amaranth, chia, moringa, buckwheat, millet, teff, hemp, or desert truffles, their capacity to thrive in the changing Mediterranean climate is highlighted, offering novel opportunities for agriculture and functional food development. By analysing how promoting agricultural diversification can enhance food system adaptability to evolving environmental conditions, fostering sustainability and resilience, we discuss recent findings that underscore the main benefits and limitations of these crops from agricultural, food science, and health perspectives, all crucial for responsible and sustainable adoption. Thus, by using a sustainable and holistic approach, this revision analyses how the integration of NUS crops into Mediterranean agrifood systems can enhance agriculture resilience and food quality addressing environmental, nutritional, biomedical, economic, and cultural dimensions, thereby mitigating the risks associated with monoculture practices and bolstering local economies and livelihoods under new climate scenarios. 

From ‘Farm to Fork’: Exploring the Potential of Nutrient-Rich and Stress-Resilient Emergent Crops for Sustainable and Healthy Food in the Mediterranean Region in the Face of Climate Change Challenges

Poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF) plastic is a 100% renewable polyester that is currently being pursued for commercialization as the next-generation bio-based plastic. This is in line with growing demand for circular bioeconomy and new plastics economy that is aimed at minimizing plastic waste mismanagement and lowering carbon footprint of plastics. However, the current catalytic route for the synthesis of PEF is impeded with technical challenges including high cost of pretreatment and catalyst refurbishment. On the other hand, the semi-biosynthetic route of PEF plastic production is of increased biotechnological interest. In particular, the PEF monomers (Furan dicarboxylic acid and ethylene glycol) can be synthesized via microbial-based biorefinery and purified for subsequent catalyst-mediated polycondensation into PEF. Several bioengineering and bioprocessing issues such as efficient substrate utilization and pathway optimization need to be addressed prior to establishing industrial-scale production of the monomers. This review highlights current advances in semi-biosynthetic production of PEF monomers using consolidated waste biorefinery strategies, with an emphasis on the employment of omics-driven systems biology approaches in enzyme discovery and pathway construction. The roles of microbial protein transporters will be discussed, especially in terms of improving substrate uptake and utilization from lignocellulosic biomass, as well as from depolymerized plastic waste as potential bio-feedstock. The employment of artificial bioengineered microbial consortia will also be highlighted to provide streamlined systems and synthetic biology strategies for bio-based PEF monomer production using both plant biomass and plastic-derived substrates, which are important for circular and new plastics economy advances. 

Towards consolidated bioprocessing of biomass and plastic substrates for semi-synthetic production of bio-poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF) polymer using omics-guided construction of artificial microbial consortia

Mung bean by‐product (MBB), containing high protein and dietary fibre, was selected as the main ingredient to make fresh gluten‐free pasta. Effects of MBB flour, egg white powder (EWP) and water on pasta quality were investigated by extreme vertices mixture design. Seven formulations of MBB pasta were evaluated for colour, protein content, dietary fibre, cooking quality and textural properties. All MBB pasta formulations had significantly higher protein content and dietary fibre than semolina pasta. Higher EWP content increased optimum cooking time, firmness, tensile strength and elongation (P ≤ 0.05) and decreased cooking loss. Scanning electron micrographs showed that the EWP created a strongly continuous protein network. An increase in water reduced cooking time and firmness but increased cooking loss (P ≤ 0.05). Firm and elastic cooked MBB pasta was obtained under conditions of high EWP and low moisture content.

Effect of ingredients on cooking quality, textural properties, and microstructure of fresh mung bean by‐product gluten‐free pasta

Grand challenges and opportunities for phenolic acids

ABSTRACT Flavonoids are valuable for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food applications. However, poor solubility and bioavailability limit their widespread use. Biotechnological glycosylation of flavonoids helps address these limitations, but such bioprocesses remain constrained by the cost and availability of uridine diphosphate glucose (UDPG) and the inherent toxicity of flavonoids. In this study we demonstrate that Escherichia coli W is an optimal microbial host for glycosylation bioprocesses using sucrose as a carbon and UDPG source. Escherichia coli W outperforms the model E. coli K12 strain in terms of flavonoid tolerance and glycosylation capabilities. Optimization of sucrose metabolism through adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) and targeted metabolic engineering to reroute glucose metabolism to UDPG further enhances E. coli W's glycosylation abilities. We validated our glycosylation platform for bench‐scale production of chrysin‐7‐O‐glucoside (C7O), a valuable flavonoid glucoside, overcoming key challenges related to the low solubility and bioavailability of its precursor, chrysin. To address bioavailability limitations, we implemented a fed‐batch bioprocess in a 3 L bioreactor which returned 1844 mg/L (3.3 mM) C7O, a specific production rate of 0.17 mmol C7O/g DCW·h and a 25.24 mg/g Yp/s after 76 h. An 82.1% yield (1515 mg/L C7O) post extraction and purification demonstrates the efficiency and scalability of the process for industrial bioproduction. 

Engineering a Robust <scp> Escherichia coli </scp> W Platform for Scalable Production of Flavonoid‐O‐Glucosides

The consumption of foods with high protein content from pseudocereals is of great industrial interest. Pasta has a high gluten content; consequently, obtaining these gluten-free products is a technological challenge. The products obtained from quinoa show excellent results in protein and fiber with low glycemic index. This work focused on studying the effect of quinoa fat on the production of long pasta by extrusion in different mixtures of hyperprotein quinoa (HHP). It was observed that formulations with high percentages of starch showed a higher expansion rate, due to a higher fat content. Likewise, extruded pastes showed higher values of brightness than those containing lower percentages of starch and crude fat. The fracturability results were associated with the resistance of the paste to the pressure exerted for its deformation, which does not exceed 3.73 mm. The formulations with lower fat content presented high values in fracture stress due to the low diffusion of water and lipids. It was shown that fat has an indirect influence with a strong correlation with the expansion index and fracture stress and a moderate correlation (p > 0.05) with Young's modulus, indicating that increasing the added fat content increases the percentage of mass loss by baking. The melting and cohesiveness of all components improved during extrusion due to the pregelatinization of cassava starch, the addition of defatted HHP and the availability of quinoa starch granules.

Physical and culinary analysis of long gluten-free extruded pasta based on high protein quinoa flour

Replacing traditional substrates in industrial bioprocesses to advance the sustainable production of chemicals is an urgent need in the context of the circular economy. However, since the limited degradability of non-conventional carbon sources often returns lower yields, effective exploitation of such substrates requires a multi-layer optimization which includes not only the provision of a suitable feedstock but the use of highly robust and metabolically versatile microbial biocatalysts. We tackled this challenge by means of systems metabolic engineering and validated Escherichia coli W as a promising cell factory for the production of the key building block chemical 2-ketoisovalerate (2-KIV) using whey as carbon source, a widely available and low-cost agro-industrial waste. First, we assessed the growth performance of Escherichia coli W on mono and disaccharides and demonstrated that using whey as carbon source enhances it significantly. Second, we searched the available literature and used metabolic modeling approaches to scrutinize the metabolic space of E. coli and explore its potential for overproduction of 2-KIV identifying as basic strategies the block of pyruvate depletion and the modulation of NAD/NADP ratio. We then used our model predictions to construct a suitable microbial chassis capable of overproducing 2-KIV with minimal genetic perturbations, i.e., deleting the pyruvate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase. Finally, we used modular cloning to construct a synthetic 2-KIV pathway that was not sensitive to negative feedback, which effectively resulted in a rerouting of pyruvate towards 2-KIV. The resulting strain shows titers of up to 3.22 ± 0.07 g/L of 2-KIV and 1.40 ± 0.04 g/L of L-valine in 24 h using whey in batch cultures. Additionally, we obtained yields of up to 0.81 g 2-KIV/g substrate. The optimal microbial chassis we present here has minimal genetic modifications and is free of nutritional autotrophies to deliver high 2-KIV production rates using whey as a non-conventional substrate.

System metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli W for the production of 2-ketoisovalerate using unconventional feedstock

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Physical and culinary analysis of long gluten-free extruded pasta based on high protein quinoa flour

System metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli W for the production of 2-ketoisovalerate using unconventional feedstock