Molecular Advances in Stress Response, Growth, Development, and Breeding of Horticultural Crops
A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Biological Factors".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 364
Special Issue Editors
Interests: brassica vegetables; Chinese kale; mustard; carotenoids; glucosinolate; antioxidants; nutritional quality; postharvest
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: tea plants; flavonoid; stress physiology; plant hormones; secondary metabolism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Horticultural crops—fruits, vegetables, ornamental plants, tea crops, edible fungi, and medicinal plants—are vital to human nutrition, health, and quality of life. Yet their extraordinary taxonomic diversity, complex domestication histories, and frequently limited genetic resources have left many species underexplored at the molecular level. Rapid advances in multi-omics, genome editing, single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and data-driven breeding now offer unprecedented opportunities to decode how horticultural plants sense and respond to stress, control growth and development, and translate this knowledge into improved varieties.
This Special Issue, “Molecular Advances in Stress Response, Growth, Development, and Breeding of Horticultural Crops,” aims to showcase cutting-edge studies that elucidate molecular mechanisms—from genes and regulatory networks to proteins, metabolites, and biomolecular complexes—and bridge discovery and application in yield, resilience, and product quality. We particularly welcome integrative studies that connect laboratory insights with field performance or postharvest traits, as well as contributions that establish resources, methods, and computational frameworks that enable the community to accelerate progress.
We invite original research articles, short communications, reviews, perspectives, and methods that advance molecular understanding and innovation across horticultural species (model and non-model species). Studies leveraging multi-omics integration, robust functional validation, and translational pipelines for breeding and quality improvement will be prioritized.
Prof. Dr. Bo Sun
Prof. Dr. Xin Li
Dr. Jian Lyu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- horticultural crops
- multi-omics integration
- genome editing
- molecular plant breeding
- abiotic and biotic stress
- quality
- metabolic pathways
- plant hormones
- transcriptional and epigenetic regulation
- protein interaction networks
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