Breeding Strategies for Abiotic Stress Resilience and Growth Adaptability in Horticultural Crops
A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Genetics, Genomics, Breeding, and Biotechnology (G2B2)".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 49
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Solanaceae; genetics; functional genomics; breeding
Interests: genomics; bioinformatics; quantitative trait locus (QTL); next-generation sequencing (NGS); genome-wide association selection (GWAS) and mapping; genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS); molecular assisted selection (MAS)
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Horticultural crops are vital for global food security and nutrition, yet they face growing challenges due to abiotic stresses, including extreme weather conditions and limited nutrient availability. Climate change, water scarcity, and nutrient imbalances threaten crop productivity and quality, highlighting the urgent need for varieties that can adapt to diverse growing conditions, optimize nutrient use, and maintain resilience under stress.
Understanding the genetic and physiological mechanisms that enable plants to adapt to these fluctuating conditions, including reduced fertilization and nutrient optimization, and their impact on fruit quality, is crucial for breeding crops with enhanced growth adaptability and stress resilience. Recent advances in computational tools (AI, ML, and deep learning), high-throughput phenotyping, -omic technologies, and sequencing techniques have significantly accelerated the identification of the genes and pathways that contribute to improved growth under stress and efficient nutrient utilization. These advances are enabling the development of superior cultivars through marker-assisted selection (MAS), genomic selection (GS), and genome editing. The combination of traditional breeding methods with modern biotechnologies offers exciting new opportunities to enhance crop resilience and sustainability.
This Special Issue, Breeding Strategies for Abiotic Stress Resilience and Growth Adaptability in Horticultural Crops, invites research and review articles on the following topics, including but not limited to the following:
- Genetic and physiological mechanisms underpinning growth adaptability to abiotic stresses (e.g., drought, salinity, and heat) and nutrient optimization;
- Identification of the key loci and candidate genes associated with growth resilience and efficient nutrient use using genomic and computational approaches;
- Applications of MAS, GS, and genome editing for breeding crops with enhanced growth adaptability and optimized fertilization strategies;
- Functional genomics and transcriptomics for understanding the pathways that contribute to growth resilience under stress and nutrient limitations;
- Multi-omics data integration for improving traits related to growth adaptability, nutrient efficiency, and predictive breeding;
- Development, characterization, and evaluation of resilient germplasm and breeding populations for low-input conditions;
- Case studies illustrating innovative strategies for improving growth adaptability, stress resilience, and nutrient use efficiency in horticultural crops.
We invite researchers to contribute their latest findings to this Special Issue, advancing our understanding of growth adaptability and nutrient optimization, and supporting the development of more resilient horticultural crops.
Dr. Matteo Martina
Dr. Lorenzo Barchi
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 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. 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 2200 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
- resistance mechanisms
- breeding strategies
- genomic selection
- marker-assisted selection
- genome editing
- abiotic stress tolerance
- functional genomics
- multi-omics integration
- high-throughput phenotyping
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