Stress-Tolerant Crops for Future Agriculture

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change is increasingly intensifying the frequency and severity of both abiotic and biotic stresses, posing a serious threat to global crop productivity and food security. The development of stress-tolerant crops is, therefore, a central priority for ensuring sustainable and resilient agriculture for the future.

In the era of precision breeding and modern molecular biology, powerful genomic tools are revolutionizing our ability to understand, design, and deploy stress tolerance in crop plants. Technologies such as CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing enable the precise manipulation of genes controlling tolerance to drought, heat, salinity, and disease. RNA-seq and single-cell transcriptomics provide high-resolution insights into stress-responsive gene networks, while genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and comparative genomics facilitate the identification and utilization of key loci and alleles underlying stress adaptation. When integrated with genomic selection and high-throughput phenomics, these approaches significantly accelerate breeding cycles and enhance the efficiency of developing robust, high-performing crop varieties.

This Special Issue of Plants, entitled “Stress-Tolerant Crops for Future Agriculture”, aims to showcase cutting-edge research focused on genetic, genomic, and molecular strategies for improving crop resilience under adverse environmental conditions. We particularly encourage submissions addressing tolerance to drought, heat, salinity, flooding, and biotic stresses such as diseases and pests, as well as studies that integrate stress tolerance with high yield, improved quality, and resource-use efficiency. Contributions demonstrating how modern genomics can support sustainable and climate-smart agricultural systems are especially welcome.

We welcome original research articles, reviews, and perspectives that highlight innovative approaches for developing stress-tolerant crops using advanced genomic and biotechnological tools, including genome editing, transcriptomics, epigenomics, GWAS, and genomic selection.

Impact and Reach

This Special Issue will serve as an international platform for sharing innovative research and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among scientists working in plant genetics, genomics, molecular biology, physiology, agronomy, and crop breeding. By advancing our understanding of the genetic and molecular basis of stress tolerance, this collection will provide valuable resources for plant breeders, researchers, and industry stakeholders. Ultimately, it will help accelerate the development and deployment of climate-resilient, high-yielding, and sustainable crop varieties, contributing to future food security and environmentally responsible agriculture.

Possible topics for this Special Issue include:

• Genomic and molecular breeding for stress tolerance.
• Genome editing for developing stress-tolerant crops.
• GWAS and QTL mapping of stress tolerance traits.
• Transcriptomics, epigenomics, and regulatory networks in stress responses.
• Development of climate-smart and stress-resilient crops.
• Integration of genomics and phenomics for crop improvement.
• The role of the plant microbiome in stress tolerance and resilience.
• Genomics-based strategies for sustainable agriculture.
• Single-cell genomics, spatial genomics, transposons, and regulatory elements in stress adaptation.

Prof. Dr. Muthusamy Ramakrishnan
Dr. Anket Sharma
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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.

• stress-tolerant crops
• climate change
• plant resilience
• abiotic stress
• biotic stress
• genome editing
• genomics-assisted breeding
• GWAS
• transcriptomics
• epigenomics
• phenomics
• microbiome
• sustainable agriculture
• climate-smart agriculture
• drought tolerance
• heat stress tolerance
• salinity tolerance
• disease resistance