Molecular Mechanisms of Abiotic and Biotic Stress Tolerance in Crops
A special issue of Current Issues in Molecular Biology (ISSN 1467-3045). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 31
Special Issue Editors
Interests: plant stress biology; abiotic stress tolerance; plant-microbe interaction; nutrient–stress interactions
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Both biotic and abiotic stresses severely limit plant growth, development and agriculture productivity. In order to cope with these universal challenges, plants have developed complex defense and adaptation mechanisms such as stress-specific signaling pathways, transcriptional reprogramming, and various cellular and physiological changes. Despite these adaptive strategies, stress conditions remain a major constraint on global crop production.
According to current estimates, biotic stresses alone contribute between 25% and 40% of yield losses among major crop species, while combined abiotic stresses (drought, salinity, extremes of heat and cold, nutrient deficiencies) could be responsible for a reduction of up to 51%–82% in global annual agricultural yield. These alarming losses pose a serious threat to global food security, particularly under the ongoing pressures of climate change and a growing human population. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms of plant defense response to biotic and abiotic stresses is critical for improving stress-tolerant crop cultivars and sustainable agriculture.
In this regard, the present Special Issue entitled “Molecular Mechanisms of Abiotic and Biotic Stress Tolerance in Crops” intends to collect original research articles, reviews (both full length and mini-reviews), as well as short communications describing new findings about the molecular mechanisms underlying stress tolerance of crops. The Special Issue will mainly focus on—but is not limited to—the following topics: the perception and signaling pathways that plants use to sense environmental stress, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation, epigenetic modulation, hormone-mediated responses, redox control, metabolic reprogramming, and interactions between several types of stresses.
Importantly, this Special Issue will highlight the application of transcriptomic and multi-omics approaches, such as RNA sequencing, single-cell transcriptomics, and integrative analyses combining transcriptomics with proteomics and metabolomics, to uncover key regulatory networks involved in stress tolerance. Studies identifying stress-responsive genes, regulatory RNAs, transcription factors, and gene expression dynamics under single or combined stress conditions are particularly encouraged.
We invite researchers to submit their original research and state-of-the-art reviews highlighting the latest developments in the molecular stress biology of crops. Contributions specifically focused on interactions of multiple stresses, omics-based approaches, gene editing, and molecular breeding towards multi-stress resistance are especially welcome.
In conclusion, this Special Issue will fulfill the above-mentioned objectives and will represent a recent view on crop molecular stress biology in order to contribute to enhance crop production and subsequently food security.
Dr. Abdullah Shalmani
Dr. Adnan Iqbal
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- stress tolerance
- molecular mechanisms
- omics approaches
- transcriptional regulation
- multi-stress resistance
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