Crop Breeding for Food and Nutrition Security

Dear Colleagues,

Food and nutrition insecurity present significant challenges, particularly in the developing world, where crop production and proactivity are extremely low. Consequently, many countries need to import large quantities of agricultural products, which consumes a huge proportion of their resources. Crop breeding represents a major tool used to increase productivity and thereby improve food supply in terms of both quantity and quality. Breeding technologies need to be developed and disseminated to farming communities to adequately address food and nutrition security issues through the development of improved varieties. Crop breeding depends on discovering, selecting and utilizing genetic variations for the trait(s) of interest. A number of conventional and modern breeding tools have been implemented in the last 100 years to boost productivity and enhance the nutritional quality of diverse crops. New plant breeding technologies (NPBTs) have been applied in recent years to further boost productivity through increasing resilience to environmental challenges. In this Special Issue, both original research and review manuscripts related to crop breeding and their role in food and nutritional security are accepted. Hence, we encourage submissions exploring both conventional and NPBT methods of plant breeding.

Prof. Dr. Zerihun Tadele
Guest Editor

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• crop breeding
• food security
• nutrition security
• conventional breeding
• NPBT
• crop productivity

Title: Integrated metabolomics and physiological analyses reveal the chromium tolerance mechanism by regulation of key metabolites and mineral nutrients profile in Brassica napus
Authors: Iram Batool^a1, Ahsan Ayyaz^a1, Kangni Zhang^a, Fakhir Hannan^a, Yongqi Sun^a, Tongjun Qin^a, Habib Ur Rehman Athar^b, Muhammad Shahbaz Naeem^c, Muhammad Ahsan Farooq^a*, Weijun Zhou^a*
Affiliation: ^a Institute of Crop Science, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Key Laboratory of Spectroscopy Sensing, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
^b Institute of Botany, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, 40162, Pakistan
^c Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan
* Corresponding authors: Tel.: +86 571 88982770. E-mail address: ahsanfarooq143@yahoo.com; wjzhou@zju.edu.cn (WZ)
¹ These authors contributed equally
Abstract: Brassica napus is a biennial crop that is widely utilized as oil, fodder, biofuel, and after soybeans and palm oil, it is the third-largest source of vegetable oil at globe level. Based on current studies, B. napus has considerable potential for cultivation in marginal lands polluted with heavy metals. However, underlying molecular mechanisms about alleviating chromium (Cr) accumulation and toxicity in B. napus are not well understood. A hydroponic culture was performed to evaluate Cr accumulation, cell wall components, oxidative stress and antioxidative system, and metabolomics profiling in response of B. napus seedlings under 50-μM Cr treatment. Results showed that Cr application notably increased Cr concentration in root and in shoot by 51.2% and 32.3%, respectively, and prompted Cr distribution in root cell wall by 43.7%, and increased lignin, pectin and hemicelloluse contents by regulating cell wall biosynthesis and metabolism–related genes. The 50-μM treatment of Cr significantly decreased the plants shoot dry weight accumulation by 72%, root dry weight 61%, and Pn, Gs, Ci, Tr, total chlorophyll and QY of PSII by 63%, 67%, 59%, 54%, 85%, 43%, respectively and boosted PSI performance as evidenced by changes in chlorophyll fluorescence indices. Further, elevated oxidative stress caused by Cr in B. napus through MAPK and plant hormone signal pathways. We also observed that Cr addition exhibited up-regulation of 28 metabolites and down-regulation of 18 metabolites related to amino acids biosynthesis mainly consisting of cysteine/homocysteine, lysine, tryptophan, alanine, glutamate, and proline as compared to drought treated plants. These findings suggest that Cr activated the defense mechanism by reprogramming the metabolome profile, regulating the cell wall biosynthesis pathway, the AsA-GSH cycle via MAPK signaling, plant hormone signaling pathways, and transporters, which could lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the morpho-physiologic and metabolomics modifications in Cr-resistant crop species.