Submit to Agriculture Review for Agriculture Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Vegetable Crops Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Quality Traits

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Genetics, Genomics and Breeding".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 June 2022) | Viewed by 22711

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Rachael Symonds

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK
Interests: abiotic stress tolerance; crop biotechnology; carotenoid biosynthesis; genetic diversity of underutilized crops
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The impacts of a changing climate are already being experienced around the world, and predictions indicate that the frequency of droughts and episodes of extreme high temperatures will increase. These abiotic stresses are impacting vegetable crop productivity and yield. This, in turn, presents challenges to food supply systems and impacts on water resources for drinking and agriculture. Further to this, elevated CO₂ levels are expected to alter the protein content and the nutrient profile of food crops. Vegetable crops can be particularly susceptible to abiotic stresses due to high water demands and sensitivity to unpredictable temperatures and saline soils. Improving existing cultivars and breeding new ones with enhanced abiotic stress tolerance traits is critical to prevent further yield losses and produce crop plants that are well-adapted to a changing climate. Developing this germplasm relies on a large and diverse gene pool of material available for cultivar improvement along with the availability of rapid and phenotyping and trait identification methods. Therefore, it is important to identify significant traits of interest associated with abiotic stress tolerance and increase the depth and breadth of molecular and physiological information available. However, there are several challenges to overcome. Vegetable crops frequently have narrow genetic diversity for abiotic stress tolerance traits due to intense selection for yield and quality traits at optimum growing conditions. Moreover, these stress tolerance characteristics are often complex polygenic traits. Additionally, there is a need for new, affordable, and rapid trait identification and phenotyping methods. This collection of articles will provide new solutions and add to the knowledge base for the development of vegetable crops adapted to abiotic stress.

Dr. Rachael Symonds
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. 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.

Keywords

trait identification
abiotic stress tolerance traits
vegetable crop diversity
vegetable population structure
vegetable crop improvement and advancement
crop nutrient and yield status

Published Papers (7 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

14 pages, 5488 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Inhibiting Copper Amine Oxidase Using L-Aminoguanidine Induces Cultivar and Age-Dependent Alterations of Polyamine Catabolism in Tomato Seedlings

by Ágnes Szepesi, László Bakacsy, Henrietta Kovács, Árpád Szilágyi and Zoltán Márton Köhler

Agriculture 2022, 12(2), 274; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12020274 - 15 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2257

Abstract

Many effects of polyamines (PAs) are well known in plant developmental processes; however, the significance of their catabolism is not well understood. Copper amine oxidase (CuAO) is involved in the degradation of diamine putrescine (Put). The genotype dependence and time-dependent effects of this enzyme are rarely examined, so this study aims to discover the role of CuAO in tomato genotypes in different stages of seedling development. Exogenously applied L-aminoguanidine (AG), a CuAO inhibitor, was used to decrease the activity of CuAOs. Based on our results, it can be concluded that there is a genotype dependence of Put degradation, and AG treatment caused a long-term shift of PA catabolism by changing the activities of polyamine oxidase (PAO), catalyzing the degradation of higher PAs. Our results demonstrate that the modification of PA catabolism could have long-term results in polyamine metabolism in different tomato genotypes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetable Crops Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Quality Traits)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 2278 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Physiological Screening for Drought Tolerance Traits in Vegetable Amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) Germplasm

by Norain Jamalluddin, Festo J. Massawe, Sean Mayes, Wai Kuan Ho, Ajit Singh and Rachael C. Symonds

Agriculture 2021, 11(10), 994; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11100994 - 13 Oct 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3997

Abstract

Amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor), an underutilized climate smart crop, is highly nutritious and possesses diverse drought tolerance traits, making it an ideal crop to thrive in a rapidly changing climate. Despite considerable studies on the growth and physiology of plants subjected to drought stress, a precise trait phenotyping strategy for drought tolerance in vegetable amaranth is still not well documented. In this study, two drought screening trials were carried out on 44 A. tricolor accessions in order to identify potential drought-tolerant A. tricolor germplasm and to discern their physiological responses to drought stress. The findings revealed that a change in stem biomass was most likely the main mechanism of drought adaptation for stress recovery, and dark-adapted quantum yield (Fv/Fm) could be a useful parameter for identifying drought tolerance in amaranth. Three drought tolerance indices: geometric mean productivity (GMP), mean productivity (MP) and stress tolerance index (STI) identified eight drought-tolerant accessions with stable performance across the two screening trials. The highly significant genotypic differences observed in several physiological traits among the amaranth accessions indicate that the amaranth panel used in this study could be a rich source of genetic diversity for breeding purposes for drought tolerance traits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetable Crops Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Quality Traits)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 444 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Wild Relative Rootstocks on Eggplant Growth, Yield and Fruit Physicochemical Properties under Open Field Conditions

by Ibrahim Musa, Mohd Y. Rafii, Khairulmazmi Ahmad, Shairul Izan Ramlee, Muhammad Asyraf Md Hatta, Usman Magaji, Isma’ila Muhammad, Samuel Chibuike Chukwu and Nur Nadzirah Mat Sulaiman

Agriculture 2021, 11(10), 943; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11100943 - 29 Sep 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2608

Abstract

Eggplant is an essential vegetable crop that is rich in health-related compounds, and the content of these compounds can be increased through grafting. It was reported that grafting with vigorous wild relatives’ rootstocks can improve eggplant’s fruit quality. The study was conducted to investigate the fruit yield, composition and physicochemical traits of Solanum melongena ME, CE, NE and TE scions grafted on wild relatives’ rootstocks of ST, SM and SI. The results show that a notable graft success (100%) was recorded in grafted (TE/ST) and self-grafted (TE/TE) plants using the cleft technique. Growth and yield traits indicated that CE and TE scions grafted onto ST, SM and SI showed better performance in all of the traits mentioned above in an open field across two years, except first flower formation which was displayed on non-grafted CE. In all the rootstocks studied—ST, SM and SI—there was no noticeable effect on carbohydrate, fibre, ash, pH and dry matter content. There was a notable effect of grafting ME/ST, CE/ST, ME/SM, CE/SI, ME/SI, ME/SI and NE/SM on the fruit length, fruit width, total soluble solids, fruit firmness and fat and protein content, respectively. Furthermore, antioxidants such as DPPH (ME/SM), total flavonoids (NE/SM) and total phenolics (TE/SI) had remarkable content of the above-mentioned physicochemical properties. Results show that ST, SM and SI represent a viable rootstock alternative to Solanum melongena or Solanum lycopersicum production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetable Crops Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Quality Traits)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 1508 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drought Stress Study on Nicotiana tabacum L., “Baladi”, an In Vitro Experimental Model

by Maria-Mihaela Antofie and Camelia Sava Sand

Agriculture 2021, 11(9), 845; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11090845 - 2 Sep 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2282

Abstract

Crops drought tolerance is a trait of outmost importance for agriculture especially today when climate change is affecting more the production for food and feed. The scope of this article is to evaluate in vitro drought stress response of Nicotiana tabacum L., “Baladi”. The experiment was set up for four successive stages starting with in vitro seedling development, hypocotyl cultivation, three generations of micropropagation, pre-acclimatization and acclimatization. The effect of abscisic acid (ABA) and/or polyethylene-glycol 6000 (PEG) on tobacco hypocotyl caulogenesis and micropropagation were investigated. Superoxide-dismutases (SODs) and peroxidases (POXs) are more active and different isoforms patterns have been identified compared to the control for cualogenesis. A decrease of internodes length and a higher shoots multiplication rate were observed. However, under PEG treatment plantlets expressed hyperhydration and ceased rooting. Pre-treatments effects study of ABA and/or PEG were finalized in acclimatization phase for 18 tobacco clones. A summary of our results revealed that ABA and/or PEG induce among others a higher oxidative stress compared to the control in the first stage that is not maintained for all clones until acclimatization. Certain clones expressed a lower SOD activity compared to the control during acclimatization but maintaining higher POX activity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetable Crops Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Quality Traits)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 3012 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Physiological Traits of Thirty-Five Tomato Accessions in Response to Low Temperature

by Sherzod Nigmatullayevich Rajametov, Kwanuk Lee, Hyo-Bong Jeong, Myeong-Cheoul Cho, Chun-Woo Nam and Eun-Young Yang

Agriculture 2021, 11(8), 792; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11080792 - 19 Aug 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4020

Abstract

Tomato is often exposed to diverse abiotic stresses and cold stress is one of harsh environmental stresses. Abnormal low temperature affects tomato growth and development, leading to, e.g., physiological disorders, flower drops, and abnormal fruit morphology, and causing a decrease in tomato yield and fruit quality. It is important to identify low temperature-(LT) tolerant tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cultivars relying on different fruit types. In this study, our focus was to analyze the physiological traits of 35 tomato accessions with three different fruit types (cherry, medium, and large sizes) under night temperature set-points of 15 °C for control temperature (CT) and 10 °C for LT, respectively. Plant heights (PH) of most tomato accessions in LT were remarkably decreased compared to those in CT. The leaf length (LL) and leaf width (LW) were reduced depending on the genotypes under LT. In addition, the number of fruits (NFR), fruit set (FS), fruit yield (FY), and marketable yield (MY) were negatively affected in LT. The variation was further investigated by the correlation, the principal component (PCA), and the cluster analysis. Interestingly, positive correlations between different vegetative and reproductive traits were uncovered. Multivariate analysis including the PCA and hierarchical clustering classified the LT-treated 35 tomato accessions into four major groups. The identified accessions were associated with vegetative and reproductive parameters on positive directions. The results might be utilized for establishing breeding programs on selecting LT-tolerant tomato cultivars with different selection indices relying on fruit types during vegetative and/or reproductive stages. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetable Crops Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Quality Traits)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 952 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Response of Different Potato Genotypes to Drought Stress

by Muhammad Waqar Nasir and Zoltan Toth

Agriculture 2021, 11(8), 763; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11080763 - 11 Aug 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3272

Abstract

A pot trial was established to evaluate the response of different potato genotypes to drought stress. Two potato genotypes (Demon and Hopehely) were exposed to two water levels (80% and 50% water holding capacity). The trial was replicated 16 times and 4 replications were harvested at 36 DAS, 54 DAS, 72 DAS, and 90 DAS. The results revealed that drought significantly reduced the growth and plant development of Demon (G1). Hopehely (G2) produced a higher yield in control as well as drought condition. Tuber yield positively correlated with tubers number, and root weight that was significantly higher in Hopehely under both experimental conditions. Hopehely produced a higher number of tubers (18) than Demon whereas Demon produced 11 tubers per plant. Moreover, under drought conditions, the relative water content of leaves and nitrogen content in foliage increased in Hopehely while decreased in Demon. Drought stress caused a 40% reduction in plant height and a 24.3% reduction in the number of leaves in Demon that was significantly higher than the 11% plant height reduction and 9.1% leaf count reduction in Hopehely. It was observed that the morphology of Hopehely (producing dwarf plants, fewer leaves, maintaining water content of leaves, producing more tubers) helped it to be a better drought-tolerant genotype compared to Demon. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetable Crops Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Quality Traits)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 3494 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drought and Saline Stress Tolerance Induced in Somatic Hybrids of Solanum chacoense and Potato Cultivars by Using Mismatch Repair Deficiency

by Imola Molnár, Lavinia Cozma, Tünde-Éva Dénes, Imre Vass, István-Zoltán Vass and Elena Rakosy-Tican

Agriculture 2021, 11(8), 696; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11080696 - 24 Jul 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2466

Abstract

Global climate change, especially when involving drought and salinity, poses a major challenge to sustainable crop production, causing severe yield losses. The environmental conditions are expected to further aggravate crop production in the future as a result of continuous greenhouse gas emissions, causing further temperature rise and leading to increased evapotranspiration, severe drought, soil salinity, as well as insect and disease threats. These suboptimal growth conditions have negative impact on plant growth, survival, and crop yield. Potato is well known as a crop extremely susceptible to drought, which is primarily attributed to its shallow root system. With potato being the fourth major food crop, increasing potato productivity is thus important for food security and for feeding global population. To maintain a sustainable potato production, it is necessary to develop stress tolerant potato cultivars that cope with the already ongoing climate change. The aim of our study is to analyze the response of potato somatic hybrids to drought and salt stress under in vitro conditions; the somatic hybrids studied are the wild relative Solanum chacoense (+) Solanum tuberosum, with or without mismatch repair deficiency (MMR). Upon this selection of drought and salt tolerant genotypes, somatic hybrids and their parents were phenotyped on a semi-automated platform, and lines tolerant to medium water scarcity (20% compared to 60% soil water capacity) were identified. Although none of the parental species were tolerant to drought, some of the MMR-deficient somatic hybrids showed tolerance to drought and salt as a new trait. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetable Crops Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Quality Traits)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Vegetable Crops Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Quality Traits

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (7 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI