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Agronomy
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Agro-Environmental Sustainable Exploitation of Halophyte, Medicinal and Aromatic Species from...
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Agro-Environmental Sustainable Exploitation of Halophyte, Medicinal and Aromatic Species from Marginal Areas—2nd Edition

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 1697

Editors

Dr. Angelica Giancaspro

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, Food, Natural Resources and Engineering (DAFNE), University of Foggia, 71122 Foggia, Italy
Interests: plant breeding; crop genetics; tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses; molecular markers; genetic maps; in vitro tissue culture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Pedro García Caparrós

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Superior School Engineering, University of Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain
Interests: abiotic stress; halophytes; plant physiology; reactive oxygen species; salt stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Crop scientists are working to overcome the challenge of adapting agricultural systems to low-input requirements, all the while ensuring high productivity, quality, and food security in an unceasingly changing climate. Traditional crops are severely affected by environmental changes, causing yield and quality losses; however, most plant species from marginal areas are able to withstand adverse conditions, ensuring productivity and supplying a wide range of applications such as animal feed or traditional/gourmet/functional foods. This Special Issue aims to gather together the most valuable research on the exploitation of spontaneous species and landraces from marginal areas, including medicinal, aromatic, and halophyte plants. We welcome reviews and research papers on the following topics: micropropagation; biodiversity; the fingerprinting of genetic resources; the molecular basis of trait adaptation to stress; soil–microbe–plant interactions for reductions in chemical fertilizers input; the evaluation of the antimicrobial/antifungal activity of medicinal and halophyte plant extracts; the production of low-environmental-impact bio-stimulants and bio-pesticides for plant growth promotion and sustainable pathogen control; the nutritional characterization of marginal species and their use in fortified healthier foods for the valorization of local unexploited resources and traditional production; and sustainable nature-based solutions for soil/water management and remediation in marginal areas.

Dr. Angelica Giancaspro
Dr. Pedro Garcia-Caparros
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy 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 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

  • marginal species
  • halophytes
  • salt tolerance
  • stress adaptation

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 7190 KB  
Article
DNA Barcoding and Allele-Specific PCR Discrimination of Glasswort Ecotypes from Apulia Region (Southern Italy)
by Angelica Giancaspro, Giulia Conversa, Luigi Giuseppe Duri, Gaetana Ricatti, Antonio Elia, Stefano Pavan and Concetta Lotti
Agronomy 2026, 16(10), 947; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16100947 - 8 May 2026
Viewed by 433
Abstract
In the scenario of ongoing climate changes, the selection of plant genotypes with high salt tolerance is emerging as the most sustainable strategy to safeguard crop yield and quality and make productive use of salinized soils. Glassworts are annual and perennial halophytes found [...] Read more.
In the scenario of ongoing climate changes, the selection of plant genotypes with high salt tolerance is emerging as the most sustainable strategy to safeguard crop yield and quality and make productive use of salinized soils. Glassworts are annual and perennial halophytes found in inner and coastal wastelands, indistinctly consumed as high-nutritional green vegetables. Traditional taxonomic classification based on morphological traits can be very challenging in glasswort, due to phenotypic plasticity, reduced plant morphology, and inbreeding. In this work, we used DNA-based molecular tools to overcome such constraints and assess inter-generic and inter-specific genetic diversity in a collection of ecotypes from different Apulian areas. A fast and reliable Allele-Specific PCR assay was optimized to enable molecular detection of annual and perennial genera. Species-level classification was obtained through a similarity- and phylogeny-based approach relying on matK and rbcL DNA barcoding. Combined DNA tools identified perennial samples as Sarcocornia fruticosa and Arthrocaulon macrostachyum, along with annual Salicornia europaea, and phylogenetic trees unveiled genetic distances between glassworts, which clustered according to life cycle. The relationship between genotypes and nutritional profiles was finally investigated, suggesting that environmental factors may play a predominant role over taxonomic relatedness in shaping interspecific differences in nutrient composition of the analyzed samples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agro-Environmental Sustainable Exploitation of Halophyte, Medicinal and Aromatic Species from Marginal Areas—2nd Edition)
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14 pages, 1713 KB  
Article
Role of Endogenous Hormone Dynamics in Regulating the Development of Suaeda salsa L. Under Salt Stress
by Jinxiu Hao, Yanyan Wang, Xinzhi Feng, Wenxuan Mai, Dong Zhang, Ke Zhang, Wentai Zhang and Ahmad Azeem
Agronomy 2025, 15(12), 2859; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15122859 - 12 Dec 2025
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 754
Abstract
Soil salinization severely constrains agricultural productivity and ecosystem sustainability. Suaeda salsa L. is a representative halophyte and demonstrates strong adaptability and potential for saline–alkali land restoration. To elucidate its physiological responses to salt stress, pot experiments were conducted under four salinity levels, namely [...] Read more.
Soil salinization severely constrains agricultural productivity and ecosystem sustainability. Suaeda salsa L. is a representative halophyte and demonstrates strong adaptability and potential for saline–alkali land restoration. To elucidate its physiological responses to salt stress, pot experiments were conducted under four salinity levels, namely CK (0 mM NaCl), LS (800 mM NaCl), MS (1600 mM NaCl), and HS (2400 mM NaCl), with 20 replicates per treatment, and the dynamics of endogenous hormone were analyzed using targeted metabolomics. The soil salinity levels were prepared by adding NaCl solutions of different molarities to achieve the desired salinity treatments. Results showed that low to moderate salinity (CK-LS: 0–800 mM) promoted growth performance, whereas higher salinity (HS: 2400 mM) significantly inhibited biomass accumulation, plant height, and stem diameter (p < 0.01). Salinity markedly affected nutrient accumulation in Suaeda salsa, with Na increasing up to 222%, K decreasing by 17–33%, Ca by 7–21%, Mg by 35–46%, and S by 45–56% across growth stages, while Fe remained unchanged. Under increasing salinity, stress-related hormones such as abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, and indole derivatives were upregulated, while gibberellins decreased markedly. Zeatin and its derivatives showed significant increases under MS (p < 0.01). Correlation analysis indicated positive associations of abscisic acid and zeatin with growth traits, and negative correlations for gibberellins (R > 0.6). These findings suggest that Suaeda salsa adapts to saline conditions by modulating hormone-mediated ion balance, osmotic regulation, and defense metabolism, thereby optimizing growth and biomass allocation under salt stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agro-Environmental Sustainable Exploitation of Halophyte, Medicinal and Aromatic Species from Marginal Areas—2nd Edition)
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