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Molecular Breeding and Genetics of Plant Drought Resistance
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Molecular Breeding and Genetics of Plant Drought Resistance

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2025 | Viewed by 544

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ivan Pejić

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetošimunska Cesta 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: plant breeding; genetics and biometrics
Dr. Miroslav Bukan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetošimunska Cesta 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: plant breeding; genetics and biometrics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleague,

We would like to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of the journal Genes, entitled “Molecular Breeding and Genetics of Plant Drought Resistance”.

Drought stress is one of the most critical the abiotic stress factors. It is predicted that by 2050, more than half of the world’s arable land will be affected by drought. The development of drought-resistant or drought-tolerant plants and cultivars with stable yields under drought and non-drought conditions is therefore becoming one of the most important goals of breeding worldwide. In addition to conventional breeding methods, breeders today have numerous biotechnological tools at their disposal that can assist them in characterizing drought-resistance traits in elite and non-elite crop germplasm. Biotechnological approaches such as the identification and introgression of trait-specific QTLs, marker-assisted selection and backcrossing, genomic selection, mutation breeding and, more recently, genetic improvement via genome editing techniques will play a crucial role in future plant breeding programs for drought resistance. In this Special Issue, we will gather knowledge on the latest advances in the research and application of modern molecular breeding and genetic tools for the development of populations and cultivars that can withstand future global climate change.

Prof. Dr. Ivan Pejić
Guest Editor

Dr. Miroslav Bukan
Guest Editor Assistant

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. Genes 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

  • climate change
  • abiotic stress
  • drought assessment
  • plant phenotyping
  • drought resistance
  • molecular breeding
  • marker assisted selection

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 1825 KiB  
Article
Selecting Tolerant Maize Hybrids Using Factor Analytic Models and Environmental Covariates as Drought Stress Indicators
by Domagoj Stepinac, Ivan Pejić, Krešo Pandžić, Tanja Likso, Hrvoje Šarčević, Domagoj Šimić, Miroslav Bukan, Ivica Buhiniček, Antun Jambrović, Bojan Marković, Mirko Jukić and Jerko Gunjača
Genes 2025, 16(7), 754; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes16070754 - 27 Jun 2025
Viewed by 194
Abstract
Background/Objectives: A critical part of the maize life cycle takes place during the summer, and due to climate change, its growth and development are increasingly exposed to the irregular and unpredictable effects of drought stress. Developing and using new cultivars with increased [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: A critical part of the maize life cycle takes place during the summer, and due to climate change, its growth and development are increasingly exposed to the irregular and unpredictable effects of drought stress. Developing and using new cultivars with increased drought tolerance for farmers is the easiest and cheapest solution. One of the concepts to screen for drought tolerance is to expose germplasm to various growth scenarios (environments), expecting that random drought will occur in some of them. Methods: In the present study, thirty-two maize hybrids belonging to four FAO maturity groups were tested for grain yield at six locations over two consecutive years. In parallel, data of the basic meteorological elements such as air temperature, relative humidity and precipitation were collected and used to compute two indices, scPDSI (Self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index) and VPD (Vapor Pressure Deficit), that were assessed as indicators of drought (water deficit) severity during the vegetation period. Practical implementation of these indices was carried out indirectly by first analyzing yield data using a factor analytic model to detect latent environmental variables affecting yield and then correlating those latent variables with drought indices. Results: The first latent variable, which explained 47.97% of the total variability, was correlated with VPD (r = −0.58); the second latent variable explained 9.57% of the total variability and was correlated with scPDSI (r = −0.74). Furthermore, latent regression coefficients (i.e., genotypic sensitivities to latent environmental variables) were correlated with genotypic drought tolerance. Conclusions: This could be considered an indication that there were two different acting mechanisms in which drought affected yield. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Breeding and Genetics of Plant Drought Resistance)
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