Genetic Improvement and Stress Resistance of Wheat

Dear Colleagues,

Global climate change has aggravated the impact of environmental stresses such as drought, extreme temperature, salinity and diseases on crop growth and grain yield, seriously threatening global food security.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the staple food of about 40% of the world population. It is mainly cultivated in arid and semi-arid areas of the world, and it is one of the crops most affected by adversity stress. Under the current new situation of climate change, extreme environmental conditions have an increasingly serious impact on the high and stable yield of wheat. Enhancing the stress resistance of wheat and ensuring the safe and efficient production of wheat are crucial to the sustainable development of agriculture in China and even the world.

In recent years, the deciphering of whole-genomes completion of wheat and related species and the in-depth development of biotechnology have greatly promoted the understanding of the genetic basis and molecular mechanism of wheat stress resistance, and heralded the arrival of the "golden age" of wheat functional genomics. The molecular basis and the genetic manipulations of wheat response and tolerance to abiotic stress and biotic stress, as well as the key regulatory sites/genes mediating stress response and their mechanism were attracted the researchers’ attentions over the world. Overall, the strategies and challenges of stress resistance improvement of wheat for improving the adaptability of wheat under complex climate change conditions were still need to be put forward largely.

Therefore, this special issue articles (original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, modeling approaches and methods) may focus on the abiotic stresses (including drought, high temperature and salinity) as well as the biotic resistances (such as rust, powdery mildew, scab, stem rot, and insects) of wheat and its’ related species at all levels such as cytogenetics, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome and epigenome studies, plant microbiome as well as the agronomic and quality traits observations. The distant hybridization of wheat and wild species for germplasm enhancement for stress and resistance improvement are most welcome.

Dr. Guangrong Li
Guest Editor

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