Advances in Horticulture Crop Breeding: From Functional Gene Discoveries to Enhanced Productivity, Stress Tolerance, and Nutritional Quality
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2026 | Viewed by 785
Special Issue Editors
Interests: genetics; brassica crops; molecular design breeding; genomics; omics
Interests: genetics; gene function; cytology; clubroot disease resistance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Horticultural crops—encompassing vegetables, fruits, ornamental plants, and medicinal herbs—are integral to global food systems, human well-being, and rural livelihood security. They underpin dietary nutrition (e.g., vitamins from fruits, dietary fiber from vegetables, and bioactive compounds from medicinal horticultural species) while supporting agricultural diversity and economic resilience. The emergence of high-throughput sequencing technologies has revolutionized horticultural crop genomics, advancing the field beyond single-genome assembly toward pan-genome construction, functional gene mapping, and epigenetic regulation—laying a robust foundation for modern horticultural crop breeding.
This Special Issue seeks to capture the dynamism of horticultural crop breeding research, encompassing advances from genome-scale discoveries (e.g., novel gene loci associated with key agronomic traits and evolutionary insights into crop domestication) to practical breeding breakthroughs. By synthesizing studies across diverse horticultural crop families (e.g., Brassicaceae [cruciferous vegetables], Solanaceae [tomato, potato], Cucurbitaceae [cucurbits], Rosaceae [apple, peach], and Liliaceae [lily, garlic]) and integrating cutting-edge technologies (e.g., CRISPR-Cas gene editing, marker-assisted selection, and multi-omics integration), it provides a critical resource for researchers, horticultural crop breeders, and agricultural policymakers. This collection aims to accelerate efforts to enhance horticultural crop productivity, stress tolerance (to biotic/abiotic stresses), and nutritional quality—aligning with global goals of sustainable horticulture and food security.
Prof. Dr. Yong Pyo Lim
Dr. Wenxing Pang
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.
Keywords
- genome editing
- functional gene mapping
- stress response
- mechanism
- molecular breeding
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