Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.4
4.5
Journals
Plants
Special Issues
Genetics of Disease Resistance in Horticultural Crops
share announcement

Genetics of Disease Resistance in Horticultural Crops

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural Science and Ornamental Plants".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2024 | Viewed by 2418

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Muhammad Irfan Siddique

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Horticultural Science, Mountain Horticultural Crops Research, and Extension Center, North Carolina State University, 455 Research Dr., Mills River, NC 28759, USA
Interests: molecular breeding and genetics; molecular plant pathology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Horticultural crop production is affected by several abiotic and biotic factors. Among them, horticultural crop diseases are major constraints affecting global production. Therefore, the development of disease-resistant and high-yielding varieties is a primary objective for horticultural crop breeders and biotechnologists. The identification of new sources of resistance and exploring mechanisms underlying resistance factors could enhance germ plasm availability for disease resistance breeding programs. The presence of diverse plant pathogens (bacteria, fungi, viruses, and mycoplasma), resistant types, and crop production systems makes “genetics of disease resistance” a multi-disciplinary field. This requires broad knowledge of related subjects such as quantitative genetics, plant pathology, molecular biology, and plant breeding. In recent years, advancement in plant biotechnology techniques and next-generation sequencing methods have opened up new avenues for analyzing sources of resistance, understanding genetics of disease resistance, allele mining, and the deployment of resistance alleles. The integration of advanced technologies with traditional approaches can expedite breeding for disease resistance in horticultural crops.

This Special Issue of Plants focuses on understanding the genetics of disease resistance in horticultural crops using conventional and modern technologies. We would like to cover related research topics (e.g., screening for disease resistance, bi-prenatal and association mapping for resistant genes or QTLs, functional studies of resistant genes, and development of molecular markers for selection), providing comprehensive insight to understand genetics for disease resistance in horticultural crops and to breed superior cultivars.

Dr. Muhammad Irfan Siddique
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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.

Keywords

  • horticultural crops disease resistance
  • R genes
  • quantitative trait loci
  • next-generation sequencing technologies
  • genome editing
  • molecular markers
  • marker-assisted selection

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

13 pages, 1883 KiB  
Article
Quantitative Trait Loci Mapping for Bacterial Wilt Resistance and Plant Height in Tomatoes
by Muhammad Irfan Siddique, Emily Silverman, Frank Louws and Dilip R. Panthee
Plants 2024, 13(6), 876; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13060876 - 19 Mar 2024
Viewed by 714
Abstract
Bacterial wilt (BW) of tomatoes, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum, is a devastating disease that results in large annual yield losses worldwide. Management of BW of tomatoes is difficult due to the soil-borne nature of the pathogen. One of the best ways to [...] Read more.
Bacterial wilt (BW) of tomatoes, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum, is a devastating disease that results in large annual yield losses worldwide. Management of BW of tomatoes is difficult due to the soil-borne nature of the pathogen. One of the best ways to mitigate the losses is through breeding for disease resistance. Moreover, plant height (PH) is a crucial element related to plant architecture, which determines nutrient management and mechanical harvesting in tomatoes. An intraspecific F2 segregating population (NC 11212) of tomatoes was developed by crossing NC 84173 (tall, BW susceptible) × CLN1466EA (short, BW resistant). We performed quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping using single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) markers and the NC 11212 F2 segregating population. The QTL analysis for BW resistance revealed a total of three QTLs on chromosomes 1, 2, and 3, explaining phenotypic variation (R2) ranging from 3.6% to 14.9%, whereas the QTL analysis for PH also detected three QTLs on chromosomes 1, 8, and 11, explaining R2 ranging from 7.1% to 11%. This work thus provides information to improve BW resistance and plant architecture-related traits in tomatoes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics of Disease Resistance in Horticultural Crops)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 3280 KiB  
Article
Deciphering the Enhancing Impact of Exogenous Brassinolide on Physiological Indices of Melon Plants under Downy Mildew-Induced Stress
by Tai Liu, Huichun Xu, Sikandar Amanullah, Zhiqiang Du, Xixi Hu, Ye Che, Ling Zhang, Zeyu Jiang, Lei Zhu and Di Wang
Plants 2024, 13(6), 779; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13060779 - 09 Mar 2024
Viewed by 580
Abstract
Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is a valuable horticultural crop of the Cucurbitaceae family. Downy mildew (DM), caused by Pseudoperonospora cubensis, is a significant inhibitor of the production and quality of melon. Brassinolide (BR) is a new type of phytohormone widely used [...] Read more.
Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is a valuable horticultural crop of the Cucurbitaceae family. Downy mildew (DM), caused by Pseudoperonospora cubensis, is a significant inhibitor of the production and quality of melon. Brassinolide (BR) is a new type of phytohormone widely used in cultivation for its broad spectrum of resistance- and defense-mechanism-improving activity. In this study, we applied various exogenous treatments (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg·L−1) of BR at four distinct time periods (6 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h) and explored the impact of BR on physiological indices and the genetic regulation of melon seedling leaves infected by downy-mildew-induced stress. It was mainly observed that a 2.0 mg·L−1 BR concentration effectively promoted the enhanced photosynthetic activity of seedling leaves, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis similarly exhibited an upregulated expression of the predicted regulatory genes of photosystem II (PSII) CmHCF136 (MELO3C023596.2) and CmPsbY (MELO3C010708.2), thus indicating the stability of the PSII reaction center. Furthermore, 2.0 mg·L−1 BR resulted in more photosynthetic pigments (nearly three times more than the chlorophyll contents (264.52%)) as compared to the control and other treatment groups and similarly upregulated the expression trend of the predicted key enzyme genes CmLHCP (MELO3C004214.2) and CmCHLP (MELO3C017176.2) involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis. Meanwhile, the maximum contents of soluble sugars and starch (186.95% and 164.28%) were also maintained, which were similarly triggered by the upregulated expression of the predicted genes CmGlgC (MELO3C006552.2), CmSPS (MELO3C020357.2), and CmPEPC (MELO3C018724.2), thereby maintaining osmotic adjustment and efficiency in eliminating reactive oxygen species. Overall, the exogenous 2.0 mg·L−1 BR exhibited maintained antioxidant activities, plastid membranal stability, and malondialdehyde (MDA) content. The chlorophyll fluorescence parameter values of F0 (42.23%) and Fv/Fm (36.67%) were also noticed to be higher; however, nearly three times higher levels of NPQ (375.86%) and Y (NPQ) (287.10%) were observed at 48 h of treatment as compared to all other group treatments. Increased Rubisco activity was also observed (62.89%), which suggested a significant role for elevated carbon fixation and assimilation and the upregulated expression of regulatory genes linked with Rubisco activity and the PSII reaction process. In short, we deduced that the 2.0 mg·L−1 BR application has an enhancing effect on the genetic modulation of physiological indices of melon plants against downy mildew disease stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics of Disease Resistance in Horticultural Crops)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 3937 KiB  
Article
Salicylic and Jasmonic Acid Synergism during Black Knot Disease Progression in Plums
by Ranjeet Shinde, Murali-Mohan Ayyanath, Mukund Shukla, Walid El Kayal, Praveen Kumar Saxena and Jayasankar Subramanian
Plants 2024, 13(2), 292; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13020292 - 18 Jan 2024
Viewed by 764
Abstract
Black knot (BK) is a deadly disease of European (Prunus domestica) and Japanese (Prunus salicina) plums caused by the hemibiotrophic fungus Apiosporina morbosa. Generally, phytopathogens hamper the balance of primary defense phytohormones, such as salicylic acid (SA)–jasmonic acid (JA) [...] Read more.
Black knot (BK) is a deadly disease of European (Prunus domestica) and Japanese (Prunus salicina) plums caused by the hemibiotrophic fungus Apiosporina morbosa. Generally, phytopathogens hamper the balance of primary defense phytohormones, such as salicylic acid (SA)–jasmonic acid (JA) balance, for disease progression. Thus, we quantified the important phytohormone titers in tissues of susceptible and resistant genotypes belonging to European and Japanese plums at five different time points. Our previous results suggested that auxin-cytokinins interplay driven by A. morbosa appeared to be vital in disease progression by hampering the plant defense system. Here, we further show that such hampering of disease progression is likely mediated by perturbance in SA, JA, and, to some extent, gibberellic acid. The results further indicate that SA and JA in plant defense are not always necessarily antagonistic as most of the studies suggest but can be different, especially in woody perennials. Together, our results suggest that the changes in phytohormone levels, especially in terms of SA and JA content due to BK infection and progression in plums, could be used as phytohormonal markers in the identification of BK-resistant cultivars. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics of Disease Resistance in Horticultural Crops)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop