Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
8.1
4.9
Journals
IJMS
Special Issues
Advancing Climate Resilience in Horticultural Crops Through Omics Technologies
ijms-logo
Submit to Special Issue Submit Abstract to Special Issue Review for IJMS Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Advancing Climate Resilience in Horticultural Crops Through Omics Technologies

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2025 | Viewed by 2690

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yonghua Qin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Interests: tropical fruit; cultivar breeding; cultivation; physiology and biotechnology; microRNAs; transcriptomics; genomics; proteomics; metabolomics; genetics; fruit cultivar selection; fruit molecular biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Guibing Hu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Interests: tropical fruit; cultivar breeding; cultivation; physiology and biotechnology; microRNAs; transcriptomics; genomics; proteomics; metabolomics; genetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing unpredictability of global climates poses a significant challenge to the sustainability and productivity of horticultural crops. These crops, which include a diverse range of fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, and spices, are integral to human nutrition, cultural traditions, and global economies. Yet, they are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, including alterations in temperature, precipitation patterns, and increased incidence of extreme weather events. In response, there is a pressing need to harness advanced multi-omics tools to enhance the resilience of these crops to changing environmental conditions.

Omics technologies, encompassing genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, phenomics, and metabolomics, offer unprecedented opportunities to deepen our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underpin stress responses and adaptation in plants. By integrating these omics approaches, researchers can uncover complex gene networks and physiological pathways that confer resistance to abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, heat, and cold. This comprehensive understanding is crucial for the development of innovative strategies to improve crop resilience, ensuring food security and agricultural sustainability in the face of climate change.

This Special Issue aims to explore the integration of omics technologies into horticulture to develop crops that are resilient to the changing climate. As the planet faces unprecedented climatic shifts, ensuring the sustainability and productivity of horticultural crops becomes crucial. This issue will bring together research that utilizes genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and phenomics to address challenges in horticulture such as drought, heat stress, salinity, and disease pressures. Through a collection of innovative research articles, reviews, and case studies, we aim to highlight the latest advancements and methodologies in omics that contribute to the development of climate-resilient horticultural crops, ensuring food security and agricultural sustainability.

This Special Issue is supervised by Prof. Yonghua Qin and Prof. Guibing Hu and assisted by Dr. Irfan Ali Sabir (South China Agricultural University, China).

Suggested themes (but not limited to):

  • Multi-omics based research to understand the biology of abiotic stress responses in Horticulture crops.
  • Genomic selection and breeding for climate resilience.
  • Proteomics and metabolomics in stress adaptation.
  • Exploring the realms of whole-genome sequencing, conducting extensive genome-wide investigations, delving into transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics evaluations.
  • Quantitative genetics (QTL, GWAS, PWAS, epiGWAS, and genomic selection) to develop climate-resilient horticulture crops.
  • Leveraging bioinformatics and gene function studies for the discovery of novel genes encoding stress resistance for stress endorsement.
  • Emerging trends in genetics and genomics for understanding key pathways and key responsive genes controlling key traits in response to environmental cues.

Prof. Dr. Yonghua Qin
Prof. Dr. Guibing Hu
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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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

  • horticultural crops
  • climate change
  • omics technologies
  • stress responses
  • abiotic stresses
  • food security
  • agricultural sustainability
  • genomics
  • transcriptomic
  • proteomics

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

21 pages, 5074 KiB  
Article
Transcriptomic and Phenotypic Responses of Cucumber Trichome Density to Silver Nitrate and Sodium Thiosulfate Application
by Muhammad Ahmad, Sen Li, Li Shan, Songlin Yang, Yaru Wang, Shanshan Fan, Menghang An, Yingqi Shi, Yifan Xu, Tiantian Pei, Xinyue Ma, Yibing Zhao, Hao Xue, Xingwang Liu and Huazhong Ren
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(3), 1298; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26031298 - 3 Feb 2025
Viewed by 735
Abstract
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is one of the most widely cultivated crops worldwide and is valued for its nutritional, economic, and ecological benefits. The regulation of defense mechanisms against herbivores, along with osmotic loss and environmental regulation, is greatly affected by trichomes [...] Read more.
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is one of the most widely cultivated crops worldwide and is valued for its nutritional, economic, and ecological benefits. The regulation of defense mechanisms against herbivores, along with osmotic loss and environmental regulation, is greatly affected by trichomes in cucumbers. In this study, we attempted to characterize trichomes and examined fruit physiological and transcriptome profiles by RNA sequencing in cucumber breeding lines 6101-4 and 5634-1 at three stages of fruit development through foliar application with a combination of silver nitrate (AgNO3) and sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3) in comparison to non-treated controls. Notable increases in the number of trichomes and altered forms were observed for both inbred cultivars 6101-4 and 5634-1 against foliar application of chemical substances. RNA-seq analysis was performed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in multiple pathways in cucumber trichome formation. The enrichment of differentially expressed transcripts showed that foliar application upregulated the expression of many stress-responsive and trichome-associated genes including plant hormone signal transduction, sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis, and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. The dominant regulatory genes, such as allene oxide synthase (AOS) and MYB1R1 transcription factor, exhibited significant modulations in their expression in response to chemical application. The RNA-seq results were further confirmed by RT-PCR-based analysis, which revealed that after chemical application, the dominant regulatory genes, such as allene oxide synthase (AOS), PTB 19, MYB1R1, bHLH62-like, MADS-box transcription factor, and salicylic acid-binding protein 2-like, were differentially expressed, implying that these DEGs involved in multiple pathways are involved the positive regulation of the initiation and development of trichomes in C. sativus. A comparison of trichome biology and associated gene expression regulation in other plant species has shown that silver nitrate (AgNO3) and sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3) are also responsible for hormonal and signaling pathway regulation. This study improves our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms involved in C. sativus trichome development. It also emphasizes the possibility of utilizing chemical composition to modulate C. sativus trichome-related characteristics of C. sativus, leading to the improvement of plant defense mechanisms as well as environmental adaptation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing Climate Resilience in Horticultural Crops Through Omics Technologies)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 12293 KiB  
Article
Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Sugar and Hormone Signaling Pathways Mediating Flower Induction in Pitaya (Hylocereus polyrhizus)
by Kamran Shah, Xiaoyue Zhu, Tiantian Zhang, Jiayi Chen, Jiaxuan Chen and Yonghua Qin
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(3), 1250; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26031250 - 31 Jan 2025
Viewed by 767
Abstract
Flower induction in pitaya (Hylocereus polyrhizus) is regulated by complex gene networks involving multiple signaling pathways that ensure flower bud (FB) formation, but its molecular determinants remain largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to identify key genes and pathways involved in [...] Read more.
Flower induction in pitaya (Hylocereus polyrhizus) is regulated by complex gene networks involving multiple signaling pathways that ensure flower bud (FB) formation, but its molecular determinants remain largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to identify key genes and pathways involved in pitaya flower induction by analyzing transcriptomics profiles from differentiating buds. Our results indicate that the flower induction process is driven by a combination of sugar, hormone, transcription factor (TF), and flowering-related genes. We found that during the FB induction period, the levels of sugar, starch, auxin (AUX), cytokinin (CTK) active forms dihydrozeatin riboside (dhZR), zeatin riboside (ZR), N6-isopentenyladenosine (iPA), and brassinosteroid (BR) increase in the late stage (LS), while active gibberellins (GA3, GA4) decrease, signaling a metabolic and hormonal shift essential for flowering. Differential gene expression analysis identified key genes involved in starch and sugar metabolism, AUX, CTK, BR synthesis, and (GA) degradation, with notable differential expression in photoperiod (COL, CDF, TCP), age-related (SPL), and key flowering pathways (FT, FTIP, AGL, SOC1). This study reveals a multidimensional regulatory network for FB formation in pitaya, primarily mediated by the crosstalk between sugar and hormone signaling pathways, providing new insights into the molecular mechanism of FB formation in pitaya. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing Climate Resilience in Horticultural Crops Through Omics Technologies)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 5886 KiB  
Article
Characterization of the SWEET Gene Family in Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) and the Role of VcSWEET6 Related to Sugar Accumulation in Fruit Development
by Jiaxin Liu, Xuxin Jiang, Lei Yang, Dongshuang Zhao, Yifei Wang, Yali Zhang, Haiyue Sun, Li Chen and Yadong Li
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(3), 1055; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26031055 - 26 Jan 2025
Viewed by 646
Abstract
Sugars will eventually be exported transporters (SWEETs) are essential transmembrane proteins involved in plant growth, stress responses, and plant–pathogen interactions. Despite their importance, systematic studies on SWEETs in blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) are limited. Blueberries are recognized for their rapid growth and [...] Read more.
Sugars will eventually be exported transporters (SWEETs) are essential transmembrane proteins involved in plant growth, stress responses, and plant–pathogen interactions. Despite their importance, systematic studies on SWEETs in blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) are limited. Blueberries are recognized for their rapid growth and the significant impact of sugar content on fruit flavor, yet the role of the SWEET gene family in sugar accumulation during fruit development remains unclear. In this study, 23 SWEET genes were identified in blueberry, and their phylogenetic relationships, duplication events, gene structures, cis-regulatory elements, and expression profiles were systematically analyzed. The VcSWEET gene family was classified into four clades. Structural and motif analysis revealed conserved exon–intron organization within each clade. RT-qPCR analysis showed widespread expression of VcSWEETs across various tissues and developmental stages, correlating with promoter cis-elements. VcSWEET6a, in particular, was specifically expressed in fruit and showed reduced expression during fruit maturation. Subcellular localization indicated that VcSWEET6a is located in the endoplasmic reticulum. Functional assays in yeast confirmed its role in glucose and fructose uptake, with transport activity inhibited at higher sugar concentrations. Overexpression of VcSWEET6a in blueberries resulted in reduced sugar accumulation. These findings offer valuable insights into the role of VcSWEETs in blueberry sugar metabolism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing Climate Resilience in Horticultural Crops Through Omics Technologies)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop