Genetics of Biotic and Abiotic Stress Response in Crops

A special issue of Genes (ISSN 2073-4425). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics and Genomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2023) | Viewed by 5876

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
Interests: plant genetics and breeding; resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biotic and abiotic stresses are the main constrains of plant growth and production, and will become more prevalent in the coming decades due to global climate change. Plant responses to these stresses are complex, involving multiple mechanisms at cellular, molecular, and physiological levels with contributions from genetic, environment, and their interactions. Classical and molecular approaches are used to elucidate the mechanisms of plant defense against biotic and abiotic stresses. Findings from genetic studies help to pinpoint potential manipulation targets for genetic engineering and classical breeding for the development of resistant cultivars.

The goals of this Special Issue are a) to develop better knowledge of the classical, molecular and functional mechanisms of resistance/tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses in order to develop more effective strategies for improving crop productivity under stress conditions and b) to explore the biochemical/physiological/genetic strategies adopted by plants that assist them in stress resistance/adaptation using a variety of molecular and functional approaches, including genomic architecture.

In this Special Issue, we invite scientists from various fields of research to report their findings on the genetics of biotic and abiotic stresses.

Scope and information for Authors

  • Classical and molecular genetics of plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses at molecular, physiological, and agronomic levels
  • Classical and molecular genetics of stress tolerance mechanisms

Prof. Dr. Ahmad Arzani
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • biotic stress
  • abiotic stress
  • genetics
  • Mendelian and quantitative genetics
  • quantitative trait loci (QTL)
  • genome-wide association studies
  • genomics
  • transcriptomics
  • bioinformatics

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4928 KiB  
Article
Characterization and Potential Function Analysis of the SRS Gene Family in Brassica napus
by Ming Hu, Meili Xie, Xiaobo Cui, Junyan Huang, Xiaohui Cheng, Lijiang Liu, Shunping Yan, Shengyi Liu and Chaobo Tong
Genes 2023, 14(7), 1421; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14071421 - 10 Jul 2023
Viewed by 1079
Abstract
SRS (SHI-related sequence) transcription factors play a crucial role in plant growth, development, and abiotic stress response. Although Brassica napus (B. napus) is one of the most important oil crops in the world, the role of SRS genes in B. napus ( [...] Read more.
SRS (SHI-related sequence) transcription factors play a crucial role in plant growth, development, and abiotic stress response. Although Brassica napus (B. napus) is one of the most important oil crops in the world, the role of SRS genes in B. napus (BnSRS) has not been well investigated. Therefore, we employed a bioinformatics approach to identify BnSRS genes from genomic data and investigated their characteristics, functions, and expression patterns, to gain a better understanding of how this gene family is involved in plant development and growth. The results revealed that there were 34 BnSRS gene family members in the genomic sequence of B. napus, unevenly distributed throughout the sequence. Based on the phylogenetic analysis, these BnSRS genes could be divided into four subgroups, with each group sharing comparable conserved motifs and gene structure. Analysis of the upstream promoter region showed that BnSRS genes may regulate hormone responses, biotic and abiotic stress response, growth, and development in B. napus. The protein-protein interaction analysis revealed the involvement of BnSRS genes in various biological processes and metabolic pathways. Our analysis of BnSRS gene expression showed that 23 BnSRS genes in the callus tissue exhibited a dominant expression pattern, suggesting their critical involvement in cell dedifferentiation, cell division, and tissue development. In addition, association analysis between genotype and agronomic traits revealed that BnSRS genes may be linked to some important agronomic traits in B. napus, suggesting that BnSRS genes were widely involved in the regulation of important agronomic traits (including C16.0, C18.0, C18.1, C18.2 C18.3, C20.1, C22.1, GLU, protein, TSW, and FFT). In this study, we predicted the evolutionary relationships and potential functions of BnSRS gene family members, providing a basis for the development of BnSRS gene functions which could facilitate targeted functional studies and genetic improvement for elite breeding in B. napus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics of Biotic and Abiotic Stress Response in Crops)
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12 pages, 2623 KiB  
Article
Identification of Key Genes Regulating Sorghum Mesocotyl Elongation through Transcriptome Analysis
by Lan Ju, Na Lv, Feng Yin, Hao Niu, Haisheng Yan, Yubin Wang, Fangfang Fan, Xin Lv, Jianqiang Chu and Junai Ping
Genes 2023, 14(6), 1215; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14061215 - 02 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1134
Abstract
Sorghum with longer mesocotyls is beneficialfor improving its deep tolerance, which is important for the seedling rates. Here, we perform transcriptome analysis between four different sorghum lines, with the aim of identifying the key genes regulating sorghum mesocotyl elongation. According to the mesocotyl [...] Read more.
Sorghum with longer mesocotyls is beneficialfor improving its deep tolerance, which is important for the seedling rates. Here, we perform transcriptome analysis between four different sorghum lines, with the aim of identifying the key genes regulating sorghum mesocotyl elongation. According to the mesocotyl length (ML) data, we constructed four comparison groups for the transcriptome analysis and detected 2705 common DEGs. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the most common category of DEGs were involved in cell wall, microtubule, cell cycle, phytohormone, and energy metabolism-related pathways. In the cell wall biological processes, the expression of SbEXPA9-1, SbEXPA9-2, SbXTH25, SbXTH8-1, and SbXTH27 are increased in the sorghum lines with long ML. In the plant hormone signaling pathway, five auxin-responsive genes and eight cytokinin/zeatin/abscisic acid/salicylic acid-related genes showed a higher expression level in the long ML sorghum lines. In addition, five ERF genes showed a higher expression level in the sorghum lines with long ML, whereas two ERF genes showed a lower expression level in these lines. Furthermore, the expression levels of these genes were further analyzed using real-time PCR (RT-qPCR), which showed similar results. This work identified the candidate gene regulating ML, which may provide additional evidence to understand the regulatory molecular mechanisms of sorghum mesocotyl elongation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics of Biotic and Abiotic Stress Response in Crops)
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12 pages, 4892 KiB  
Article
Genome-Wide Identification of GYF-Domain Encoding Genes in Three Brassica Species and Their Expression Responding to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in Brassica napus
by Xiaobo Zhang, Lei Qin, Junxing Lu, Yunong Xia, Xianyu Tang, Xun Lu and Shitou Xia
Genes 2023, 14(1), 224; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14010224 - 15 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1687
Abstract
GYF (glycine-tyrosine-phenylalanine)-domain-containing proteins, which were reported to participate in many aspects of biological processes in yeast and animals, are highly conserved adaptor proteins existing in almost all eukaryotes. Our previous study revealed that GYF protein MUSE11/EXA1 is involved in nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) [...] Read more.
GYF (glycine-tyrosine-phenylalanine)-domain-containing proteins, which were reported to participate in many aspects of biological processes in yeast and animals, are highly conserved adaptor proteins existing in almost all eukaryotes. Our previous study revealed that GYF protein MUSE11/EXA1 is involved in nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptor-mediated defense in Arabidopsis thaliana. However, the GYF-domain encoding homologous genes are still not clear in other plants. Here, we performed genome-wide identification of GYF-domain encoding genes (GYFs) from Brassica napus and its parental species, Brassica rapa and Brassica oleracea. As a result, 26 GYFs of B. napus (BnaGYFs), 11 GYFs of B. rapa (BraGYFs), and 14 GYFs of B. oleracea (BolGYFs) together with 10 A. thaliana (AtGYFs) were identified, respectively. We, then, conducted gene structure, motif, cis-acting elements, duplication, chromosome localization, and phylogenetic analysis of these genes. Gene structure analysis indicated the diversity of the exon numbers of these genes. We found that the defense and stress responsiveness element existed in 23 genes and also identified 10 motifs in these GYF proteins. Chromosome localization exhibited a similar distribution of BnaGYFs with BraGYFs or BolGYFs in their respective genomes. The phylogenetic and gene collinearity analysis showed the evolutionary conservation of GYFs among B. napus and its parental species as well as Arabidopsis. These 61 identified GYF domain proteins can be classified into seven groups according to their sequence similarity. Expression of BnaGYFs induced by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum provided five highly upregulated genes and five highly downregulated genes, which might be candidates for further research of plant–fungal interaction in B. napus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics of Biotic and Abiotic Stress Response in Crops)
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20 pages, 995 KiB  
Article
Combining Abilities and Heterotic Patterns among Early Maturing Maize Inbred Lines under Optimal and Striga-Infested Environments
by Gloria Boakyewaa Adu, Baffour Badu-Apraku, Richard Akromah and Frederick Justice Awuku
Genes 2022, 13(12), 2289; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13122289 - 05 Dec 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1457
Abstract
Information on the general combining ability of inbred lines and the specific combining ability of hybrid combinations is crucial for successful hybrid development. The objectives of this study were to (i) determine the combining ability of thirty selected early maturing maize inbred lines [...] Read more.
Information on the general combining ability of inbred lines and the specific combining ability of hybrid combinations is crucial for successful hybrid development. The objectives of this study were to (i) determine the combining ability of thirty selected early maturing maize inbred lines under Striga-infested and optimal environments, (ii) classify the inbred lines into heterotic groups using the general combining ability effects of multiple traits (HGCAMT) and the single nucleotide polymorphism genetic distance (SNP- GD) methods, and (iii) assess the effectiveness of the heterotic grouping methods. One hundred and fifty single-cross hybrids were generated from the thirty inbred lines using the North Carolina Design II mating method. The hybrids and six local check varieties were tested across optimal and Striga-infested environments in Ghana and Nigeria in 2016 and 2017. The inheritance of grain yield was controlled by the non-additive gene action under both environments and the additive gene action across the two research environments. The non-additive gene action modulated the inheritance of measured traits under Striga-infested environments, except for the Striga damage syndrome rating at 8 weeks after planting. Maternal effects were observed for most traits in each environment and across environments. The inbred lines TZEI 127 and TZEI 40 exhibited significant and positive GCA male and female effects for grain yield under each environment and across the two research environments, indicating the presence of favorable alleles for yield improvements. The SNP-GD heterotic grouping method was identified as the most adequate in grouping the thirty inbred lines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics of Biotic and Abiotic Stress Response in Crops)
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