The next Green Revolution: integrating crop architectype and physiotype

The Green Revolution must evolve to meet global food demand in times of climate change and global crisis. The architectype represents an important breeding target to secure yields under varying climatic and environmental conditions. Optimized physiological traits, defined as the physiotype, need to be integrated with optimized morphological traits to enhance yield potential, reduce resource input, and maximize environmental resilience. The synergy between ideal architectype and optimal physiotype can enable a new Green Revolution driven by advancements in genomics, transgene, genomic selection, genome editing, molecular design, and precision management practices. Emerging technologies, including high-throughput phenotyping, multi-omics approaches, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, will facilitate the discovery of gene sets for critical traits and accelerate the breeding of next-generation crop varieties. In the middle of the last century, the Green Revolution dramatically increased crop yields and transformed global agriculture. As current food production is increasingly challenged by the demands of the growing population, climate change, and environmental degradation, a new Green Revolution is urgently needed. This Review highlights recent progress in defining the morphological ideotypes of four major crops, and proposes essential physiological traits critical for crop improvement and environmental adaptation. We introduce two concepts: the ‘architectype’ representing optimized morphological features, and the ‘physiotype’ encompassing improved physiological traits. By integrating these concepts through advanced genomic technologies and precision management practices, the next Green Revolution could potentially enhance crop yields and resource use efficiency by over 20–30%, thereby ensuring sustainable food production. In the middle of the last century, the Green Revolution dramatically increased crop yields and transformed global agriculture. As current food production is increasingly challenged by the demands of the growing population, climate change, and environmental degradation, a new Green Revolution is urgently needed. This Review highlights recent progress in defining the morphological ideotypes of four major crops, and proposes essential physiological traits critical for crop improvement and environmental adaptation. We introduce two concepts: the ‘architectype’ representing optimized morphological features, and the ‘physiotype’ encompassing improved physiological traits. By integrating these concepts through advanced genomic technologies and precision management practices, the next Green Revolution could potentially enhance crop yields and resource use efficiency by over 20–30%, thereby ensuring sustainable food production.