Genetic Diversity of Plant Tolerance to Environmental Restraints

Dear Colleagues,

Land plants evolved from aquatic organisms about 475 million years ago, the conquest of land mass representing a major achievement made possible over time by genomic evolution (mutations, gene and genome duplications, polyploidy, transposons, etc.). Through this process, plants evolved complex networks of interacting genes to adapt to environmental conditions, and researchers have only just begun to unravel and understand these networks. In the 21st century, however, plants are facing a new challenge, where they have to adapt to a quickly changing environment. Global warming and extremes in temperature and water availability associated with climate change may require plants to adapt faster than their natural plasticity and/or mutation rate currently allow them to. This may cause the extinction of plant species, including staple food crops for human nutrition. The pressure is thus on for scientists to accelerate the identification of available genetic variation in plants linked to the capacity to adapt to environmental stressors and to unravel the underlying molecular and physiological basis. This Special Issue of Genes aims to provide a collection of papers that illustrate our current efforts in improving plant tolerance to environmental restraints.

Dr. Rudy Dolferus
Guest Editor
Dr. Olive Onyemaobi
Co-Guest Editor

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