Submit to Special Issue Submit Abstract to Special Issue Review for IJMS Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Crop Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance 3.0

Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 7796

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Fazhan Qiu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Interests: QTL/gene clones; genomic breeding; plant genetics; plant architecture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Crop production is affected by biotic and abiotic stresses, such as drought, salinity, flooding, low or high temperatures, and pest and disease attacks. Therefore, QTL/gene clone and functional analyses for these major traits are very important to the development of stress-resilient and high-yield crops. Recent advances in functional genomics in crops will accelerate the breeding and genetic improvement of crops for biotic and abiotic stresses and yield-related traits.

For this Special Issue, we welcome novel research related to QTL/gene clones, especially for biotic and abiotic stresses, molecular marker development, marker-assisted selection, genome editing, genetic transformation, and their advancement and application in crop improvement. We also welcome reviews on recent molecular and biotechnological advances and their potential applications in the genetic improvement of corn.

Prof. Dr. Fazhan Qiu
Guest Editor

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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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.

Keywords

biotic and abiotic stress tolerance
QTL/gene mapping and clones
gene editing
marker-assisted selection
genomic breeding

Published Papers (6 papers)

Download All Papers

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

19 pages, 5589 KiB

Open AccessArticle

HvGSK1.1 Controls Salt Tolerance and Yield through the Brassinosteroid Signaling Pathway in Barley

by Yuliya Kloc, Marta Dmochowska-Boguta, Paulina Żebrowska-Różańska, Łukasz Łaczmański, Anna Nadolska-Orczyk and Wacław Orczyk

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(2), 998; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25020998 - 13 Jan 2024

Viewed by 730

Abstract

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are a class of plant steroid hormones that are essential for plant growth and development. BRs control important agronomic traits and responses to abiotic stresses. Through the signaling pathway, BRs control the expression of thousands of genes, resulting in a variety of biological responses. The key effectors of the BR pathway are two transcription factors (TFs): BRASSINAZOLE RESISTANT 1 (BZR1) and BRI1-EMSSUPPRESSOR 1 (BES1). Both TFs are phosphorylated and inactivated by the Glycogen synthase kinase 3 BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE2 (BIN2), which acts as a negative regulator of the BR pathway. In our study, we describe the functional characteristics of HvGSK1.1, which is one of the GSK3/SHAGGY-like orthologs in barley. We generated mutant lines of HvGSK1.1 using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of the edited region of the HvGSK1.1 showed a wide variety of mutations. Most of the changes (frameshift, premature stop codon, and translation termination) resulted in the knock-out of the target gene. The molecular and phenotypic characteristics of the mutant lines showed that the knock-out mutation of HvGSK1.1 improved plant growth performance under salt stress conditions and increased the thousand kernel weight of the plants grown under normal conditions. The inactivation of HvGSK1.1 enhanced BR-dependent signaling, as indicated by the results of the leaf inclination assay in the edited lines. The plant traits under investigation are consistent with those known to be regulated by BRs. These results, together with studies of other GSK3 gene members in other plant species, suggest that targeted editing of these genes may be useful in creating plants with improved agricultural traits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance 3.0)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 1735 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Genome-Wide Identification and Comprehensive Analysis of the GASA Gene Family in Peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) under Abiotic Stress

by Rizwana Begum Syed Nabi, Myoung Hee Lee, Kwang-Soo Cho, Rupesh Tayade, Sungup Kim, Jung-In Kim, Min-Young Kim, Eunsoo Lee, Jungeun Lee, Sang-Woo Kim and Eunyoung Oh

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(23), 17117; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242317117 - 04 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1531

Abstract

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a globally cultivated crop of significant economic and nutritional importance. The role of gibberellic-acid-stimulated Arabidopsis (GASA) family genes is well established in plant growth, development, and biotic and abiotic stress responses. However, there is a gap in understanding the function of GASA proteins in cultivated peanuts, particularly in response to abiotic stresses such as drought and salinity. Thus, we conducted comprehensive in silico analyses to identify and verify the existence of 40 GASA genes (termed AhGASA) in cultivated peanuts. Subsequently, we conducted biological experiments and performed expression analyses of selected AhGASA genes to elucidate their potential regulatory roles in response to drought and salinity. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that AhGASA genes could be categorized into four distinct subfamilies. Under normal growth conditions, selected AhGASA genes exhibited varying expressions in young peanut seedling leaves, stems, and roots tissues. Notably, our findings indicate that certain AhGASA genes were downregulated under drought stress but upregulated under salt stress. These results suggest that specific AhGASA genes are involved in the regulation of salt or drought stress. Further functional characterization of the upregulated genes under both drought and salt stress will be essential to confirm their regulatory roles in this context. Overall, our findings provide compelling evidence of the involvement of AhGASA genes in the mechanisms of stress tolerance in cultivated peanuts. This study enhances our understanding of the functions of AhGASA genes in response to abiotic stress and lays the groundwork for future investigations into the molecular characterization of AhGASA genes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance 3.0)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 2642 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Identification of a Quantative Trait Loci-Allele System of Antixenosis against the Common Cutworm (Spodoptera litura Fabricius) at the Seedling Stage in the Chinese Soybean Landrace Population

by Lin Pan, Junyi Gai and Guangnan Xing

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(22), 16089; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242216089 - 08 Nov 2023

Viewed by 670

Abstract

Common cutworm (CCW) is an omnivorous insect causing severe yield losses in soybean crops. The seedling-stage mini-tray identification system with the damaged leaf percentage (DLP) as an indicator was used to evaluate antixenosis against CCW in the Chinese soybean landrace population (CSLRP) under three environments. Using the innovative restricted two-stage multi-locus genome-wide association study procedure (RTM-GWAS), 86 DLP QTLs with 243 alleles (2–11/QTL) were identified, including 66 main-effect loci with 203 alleles and 57 QTL-environment interaction loci with 172 alleles. Among the main-effect loci, 12 large-contribution loci (R² ≥ 1%) explained 25.45% of the phenotypic variation (PV), and 54 small-contribution loci (R² < 1%) explained 16.55% of the PV. This indicates that the CSLRP can be characterized with a DLP QTL-allele system complex that has not been found before, except for a few individual QTLs without alleles involved. From the DLP QTL-allele matrix, the recombination potentials expressed in the 25th percentile of the DLP of all possible crosses were predicted to be reduced by 41.5% as the maximum improvement and 14.2% as the maximum transgression, indicating great breeding potential in the antixenosis of the CSLRP. From the QTLs, 62 candidate genes were annotated, which were involved in eight biological function categories as a gene network of the DLP. Changing from susceptible to moderate plus resistant varieties in the CSLRP, 26 QTLs had 32 alleles involved, in which 19 genes were annotated from 25 QTL-alleles, including eight increased negative alleles on seven loci and 11 decreased positive alleles on 11 loci, showing the major genetic constitution changes for the antixenosis enhancement at the seedling stage in the CSLRP. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance 3.0)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 12196 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Genomic and Transcriptomic Insights into the Evolution and Divergence of MIKC-Type MADS-Box Genes in Carica papaya

by Yunsu Dai, Yu Wang, Liwang Zeng, Ruizong Jia, Linwen He, Xueying Huang, Hui Zhao, Difa Liu, Haixu Zhao, Shuai Hu, Ling Gao, Anping Guo, Wei Xia and Changmian Ji

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(18), 14039; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241814039 - 13 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 946

Abstract

MIKC-type MADS-box genes, also known as type II genes, play a crucial role in regulating the formation of floral organs and reproductive development in plants. However, the genome-wide identification and characterization of type II genes as well as a transcriptomic survey of their potential roles in Carica papaya remain unresolved. Here, we identified and characterized 24 type II genes in the C. papaya genome, and investigated their evolutional scenario and potential roles with a widespread expression profile. The type II genes were divided into thirteen subclades, and gene loss events likely occurred in papaya, as evidenced by the contracted member size of most subclades. Gene duplication mainly contributed to MIKC-type gene formation in papaya, and the duplicated gene pairs displayed prevalent expression divergence, implying the evolutionary significance of gene duplication in shaping the diversity of type II genes in papaya. A large-scale transcriptome analysis of 152 samples indicated that different subclasses of these genes showed distinct expression patterns in various tissues, biotic stress response, and abiotic stress response, reflecting their divergent functions. The hub-network of male and female flowers and qRT-PCR suggested that TT16-3 and AGL8 participated in male flower development and seed germination. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the evolution and functions of MIKC-type genes in C. papaya. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance 3.0)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

23 pages, 1845 KiB

Open AccessReview

Calcium Signaling and the Response to Heat Shock in Crop Plants

by Xinmiao Kang, Liqun Zhao and Xiaotong Liu

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(1), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25010324 - 26 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1106

Abstract

Climate change and the increasing frequency of high temperature (HT) events are significant threats to global crop yields. To address this, a comprehensive understanding of how plants respond to heat shock (HS) is essential. Signaling pathways involving calcium (Ca²⁺), a versatile second messenger in plants, encode information through temporal and spatial variations in ion concentration. Ca²⁺ is detected by Ca²⁺-sensing effectors, including channels and binding proteins, which trigger specific cellular responses. At elevated temperatures, the cytosolic concentration of Ca²⁺ in plant cells increases rapidly, making Ca²⁺ signals the earliest response to HS. In this review, we discuss the crucial role of Ca²⁺ signaling in raising plant thermotolerance, and we explore its multifaceted contributions to various aspects of the plant HS response (HSR). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance 3.0)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 1415 KiB

Open AccessReview

Drought Stress Tolerance in Vegetables: The Functional Role of Structural Features, Key Gene Pathways, and Exogenous Hormones

by Kumail Abbas, Jingrui Li, Binbin Gong, Yusong Lu, Xiaolei Wu, Guiyun Lü and Hongbo Gao

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(18), 13876; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241813876 - 09 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2254

Abstract

The deleterious effects of drought stress have led to a significant decline in vegetable production, ultimately affecting food security. After sensing drought stress signals, vegetables prompt multifaceted response measures, eventually leading to changes in internal cell structure and external morphology. Among them, it is important to highlight that the changes, including changes in physiological metabolism, signal transduction, key genes, and hormone regulation, significantly influence drought stress tolerance in vegetables. This article elaborates on vegetable stress tolerance, focusing on structural adaptations, key genes, drought stress signaling transduction pathways, osmotic adjustments, and antioxidants. At the same time, the mechanisms of exogenous hormones such as abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA), salicylic acid (SA), and ethylene (ET) toward improving the adaptive drought tolerance of vegetables were also reviewed. These insights can enhance the understanding of vegetable drought tolerance, supporting vegetable tolerance enhancement by cultivation technology improvements under changing climatic conditions, which provides theoretical support and technical reference for innovative vegetable stress tolerance breeding and food security. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance 3.0)

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Crop Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance 3.0

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (6 papers)

Research

Review

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI