Expressing Genes of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.): A Review

Safflower is of potential interest for agriculture mainly due to its commercial utility as oil, animal feed, and pharmacologically significant secondary metabolites. Knowledge of a metabolome of plant is crucial to optimize the crop traits, yields and quality, and ensure nutritional and health factors to produce functional food or feeds. Gene expression studies provide a theoretical molecular biology foundation for improving new traits and developing new cultivars.Here reader may find a review of articles on different regulators controling gene expression in safflower, including transcription factors and microRNAs in relation to flavonoid metabolism pathway, oil production and abiotic stress tolerance.