Genetic Strategies for Improving Crop Yields

Dear Colleagues,

Background Improving crop yields is a major challenge for feeding the world's population by 2050. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new high-yield cultivars to address this challenge.

History The goal of crop breeding is to produce agricultural plants with ideal traits, such as increasing grain yield, improving nutritional quality, and enhancing adaptability to environmental changes. The Green Revolution in the 1960s made a steep increase in the yields of major staple grain crops to address the caloric needs of a growing global population. With the continuous progress of plant science and breeding technology, further raising of crop yields can be achieved through enhancing the potential and closing the gaps. This has been evolving and complemented with modern breeding techniques and platforms, mainly driven by molecular and genomic tools, combined with improved fields-based phenotyping and better understanding of the genetic architecture of traits.

Aim and scope This special issue is titled "Genetic Strategies for Improving Crop Yields", aiming to introduce and summarize the important progress made in understanding genetic constraints on yield potential and factors affecting assimilate allocation for reproductive growth and spike fertility. It also looks forward to offering the unlocking and creating of favorable genetic variation for enhancing yield through molecular and genomic approaches including mutation, gene mapping and discovery, and transgene and genome editing as well as alien introgression.

Cutting-edge research

1. The mapping, discovery and cloning of gene/QTL as well as genome editing for yield improvement;
2. Unlocking and creating favorable genetic variation for raising photosynthetic capacity or improving the traits related to crop yields through molecular and genomic approaches;
3. Physical processes associated with lodging and key traits for genetic improvement;
4. Integrated genomics, physiology and breeding approaches to enhance crop tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress;
5. Strategies for utilization of wild relatives in improving crop yields;

What kind of papers we are soliciting

1. Identification and/or utilization of favorable genetic variation associated to crop yields;
2. Genomics, molecular genetics, cytogenetics, or technology used in screening and characterization of germplasm related to crops yield improvement;
3. New methods or technologies for germplasm enhancement;
4. Marker-assisted selection for the improvement of crop yield;
5. Molecular and cytogenetic Identification of the chromosomal variations associated to crops yield;
6. Gene cloning and functional verification involved in the factors of crop yield formation;
7. Accurate identification of the phenotypes and genotypes associated to crop yields.

Dr. Zhijian Chang
Dr. Jun Zheng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• crop yield
• complex traits
• QTL
• gene mapping and discovery
• genome editing
• alien introgression
• genetic resources
• tolerance to abiotic stress
• disease resistance
• genomic selection
• breeding methodology