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Horticulturae
Special Issues
Genetic Improvement and Stress Resistance Regulation of Fruit Trees
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Genetic Improvement and Stress Resistance Regulation of Fruit Trees

A Special Issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524) belonging to the section "Genetics, Genomics, Breeding, and Biotechnology (G2B2)".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 August 2026) | Viewed by 2405

Editors

Prof. Dr. Bowen Liang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China
Interests: apple; abiotic stress tolerance; nutrient use efficiency; germplasm; genetic; microbiome
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Changqing Ma

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China
Interests: apple; fruit quality; epigenetic regulation; growth and development; genetic improvement

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The growth and development of fruit trees usually depend on the genotype and environmental conditions. Unpredictable environmental change will impose amplified abiotic and biotic stresses on fruit trees. However, fruit trees have evolved and developed a wide range of strategies at the physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels to deal with these stresses. In addition to harnessing these strengths, fruit tree genetic improvement is critical for enhancing quantity, quality, and stress resistance to meet the growing demands of sustainable horticulture.

The aim of this Special Issue, entitled “Genetic Improvement and Stress Resistance Regulation of Fruit Trees”, is to collect research studies on the key adaptation strategies of fruit trees that can be exploited to improve stress tolerance and on the genes and genetic variation involved in different mechanisms related to the implementation of adaptation to biotic and abiotic stresses.

We look forward to your excellent contributions to this Special Issue of Horticulturae.

Prof. Dr. Bowen Liang
Dr. Changqing Ma
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Horticulturae 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 2400 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

  • genetic improvement
  • abiotic and biotic stress
  • stress resistance
  • molecular mechanism

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 1907 KB  
Article
Resistance Evaluation of Pear Ring Rot on Detached Leaves and Genetic Model Analysis in Four Pear F1 Populations
by Zhen Yang, Fei Wang, Chunqing Ou, Liyong Qi, Yanjie Zhang and Shuling Jiang
Horticulturae 2026, 12(7), 811; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae12070811 - 1 Jul 2026
Viewed by 635
Abstract
Pear ring rot, caused by Botryosphaeria kuwatsukai, is a major threat to pear production. The resistance of four pear F1 populations to three B. kuwatsukai isolates was evaluated using detached leaf inoculations, assessed by the Area Under the Disease Progress Curve [...] Read more.
Pear ring rot, caused by Botryosphaeria kuwatsukai, is a major threat to pear production. The resistance of four pear F1 populations to three B. kuwatsukai isolates was evaluated using detached leaf inoculations, assessed by the Area Under the Disease Progress Curve (AUDPC) and average lesion diameter (ADL). Cluster analysis based on these metrics established a five-level resistance rating scale. All hybrid combinations exhibited clear segregation for resistance, with continuous phenotypic variation and coefficients of variation exceeding 50%, suggesting polygenic inheritance. Broad-sense heritability (H2) of lesion diameter, estimated from replicated inoculations using a linear mixed-model approach, ranged from 0.32 to 0.71 across populations and isolates, indicating that the phenotypic variation was largely under genetic control. Genetic model analysis using the SEA v2.0 package identified a two-major-gene additive-dominant (2MG-AD) model as the best fit for the data across all combinations and isolates, with additive effects predominating. Isolate-specific responses were detected in the ‘Doyenne du Comice’ × ‘Huangguan’ population, and reciprocal differences between ‘Zhongai 1’ × ‘Zaosu’ and its reciprocal cross suggested potential cytoplasmic or maternal effects on resistance expression. Collectively, these findings suggest that pear leaf resistance to B. kuwatsukai is consistent with a two-gene additive-dominant model, supported by moderate-to-high heritability estimates. However, independent validation with additional populations and molecular markers is needed. These results highlight the value of multi-isolate screening, appropriate selection of resistant and susceptible parents, and the use of reciprocal crossing in breeding for broad-spectrum and durable resistance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Improvement and Stress Resistance Regulation of Fruit Trees)
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15 pages, 2122 KB  
Article
Exogenous Trimethylamine N-Oxide (TMAO) Improves Apple Rootstock Drought Tolerance Through Physiological Modulation
by Xiaoci Liang, Pengda Cheng, Shuang Zhao, Ye Sun, Dehui Zhang, Jiale Wen, Fengwang Ma, Qingmei Guan, Xuewei Li and Yutian Zhang
Horticulturae 2026, 12(1), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae12010101 - 18 Jan 2026
Viewed by 1161
Abstract
Drought stress represents a major constraint on global apple production, with the widely used semi-dwarfing rootstock ‘M.26’ being particularly vulnerable to water deficit. Although the osmolyte trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) has been shown to improve abiotic stress tolerance in the model plant Arabidopsis, its [...] Read more.
Drought stress represents a major constraint on global apple production, with the widely used semi-dwarfing rootstock ‘M.26’ being particularly vulnerable to water deficit. Although the osmolyte trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) has been shown to improve abiotic stress tolerance in the model plant Arabidopsis, its potential role in enhancing drought resilience in woody fruit trees remains largely unexplored. Under prolonged moderate drought stress, exogenous TMAO application significantly promoted plant growth, mitigating the drought-induced suppression of plant height by 5.3–12.2% compared to untreated drought-stressed controls and alleviating the decline in above-ground biomass. This improvement was underpinned by a substantial alleviation of root growth inhibition, with TMAO restoring total root length and biomass from 37% in the control to only 6.1–9.5%. TMAO also fine-tuned the root-to-shoot ratio to favor resource allocation to roots. Consequently, TMAO-treated plants maintained superior leaf water status, exhibiting higher relative water content (drought-induced reduction limited to ~17.5% with TMAO versus 26.3% in the control). Physiologically, TMAO alleviated the drought-induced stomatal limitation of photosynthesis, sustaining higher net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and transpiration rate. Crucially, under severe drought stress, TMAO pretreatment markedly enhanced ‘M.26’ survival rates from approximately 39% in the untreated control to 60–68%, representing a relative increase of approximately 74%. Collectively, this study demonstrates that exogenous application TMAO significantly enhances drought tolerance in apple rootstock ‘M.26’, highlighting its potential as an effective and environmentally safe plant growth regulator for more sustainable cultivation of fruit trees under irregular/erratic irrigation conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Improvement and Stress Resistance Regulation of Fruit Trees)
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