Dear Colleagues,

Worldwide, concerns among consumers and policymakers in regard to agriculture sustainability and environmental security are rising. Increasing productivity has been highlighted as a way to meet the growing global demand for food. A sustainable increase in crop productivity will require major improvements in the efficiency of resource use, environmental protection, and systems resilience. Environmental conditions are constantly challenging plant adaptation and survival. Climate change has increased the frequency of heatwaves, drought, and floods, and has created opportunities for the quicker spread of plant pests and diseases. The development and identification of climate-resilient and high-yield crop varieties with enhanced tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses is crucial for more sustainable agriculture. The progress of genomic technologies and tools has enabled a better understanding of the genetic bases and biochemical mechanisms behind plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. These pieces of knowledge and tools will accelerate crop breeding programs to enhance their yields as well as resilience against such stresses. 

This Special Issue focuses on genomic approaches and tools that use advanced technology to study plant responses to biotic and abiotic stress conditions. We welcome original contributions on the identification of genomic regions, genes, and haplotypes associated with plant stress resistance, the development of genomic tools, and the deployment of genomic-assisted breeding approaches for the introgression of resistant genes in breeding programs.

Dr. Carmen Santos
Dr. Susana T. Leitão
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• plant disease and pest resistance plant abiotic stress tolerance
• quantitative trait loci-QTL/gene mapping
• genome wide association studies-GWAS
• molecular marker development
• marker-assisted selection
• genomic breeding