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Plants
Special Issues
Genomics of Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Cereals
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Genomics of Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Cereals

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 1312

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gautam Saripalli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University Pee Dee Research & Education Center, Florence, SC, USA
Interests: wheat genomics and biotechnology
Dr. Vijay Gahlaut

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
University Centre for Research & Development and Department of Biotechnology, Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab, India
Interests: crop biotechnology and genomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cereals like maize, wheat and rice serve as staple food for most people worldwide. Therefore, there is a continuous need to develop cultivars/varieties that can withstand in adverse climatic changes, including biotic and abiotic stresses. With the advent of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology, various genomics resources like  RNA Sequencing (RNA-Seq) data, high throughput SNP genotyping data, genomic predictions for different traits and reference level genome assemblies are now available for these crops. This has also facilitated the development of pangenomes for both, the wild and cultivated accessions. The traits associated with environmental stresses are highly complex and generally regulated by many genes/QTLs. While a large number of QTL are already identified for these traits, they have still not been utilized completely for variety development. In this special issue, we welcome research papers, reviews, and short communications that are focused on the following themes:

  1. Genetic mapping (GWAS and interval mapping) for biotic and abiotic stresses in cereals
  2. Exploration of genetic diversity for agronomically important traits
  3. Use of crop wild relatives for trait discovery and improvement
  4. Precision mapping using high density linkage maps
  5. Functional gene validation using overexpression and gene knockout approaches
  6. Development of germplasm resources (deletion panels, radiation hybrid populations) for trait discovery
  7. RNA-seq analysis for identification of differentially expressed genes under different biotic or abiotic stresses
  8. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS)
  9. Integration of genomic approaches for developing resilient cereal varieties.

Dr. Gautam Saripalli
Dr. Vijay Gahlaut
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. 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

  • cereals
  • genetic mapping
  • biotic and abiotic stress
  • wild germplasm
  • next generation sequencing

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 3358 KiB  
Article
The Structural Deciphering of the α3 Helix Within ZmHsfA2’S DNA-Binding Domain for the Recognition of Heat Shock Elements in Maize
by Yantao Wang, Zhenyu Ma, Guoliang Li, Xiangzhao Meng, Shuonan Duan, Zihui Liu, Min Zhao, Xiulin Guo and Huaning Zhang
Plants 2025, 14(13), 1950; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14131950 - 25 Jun 2025
Viewed by 340
Abstract
Heat shock transcription factor (Hsf) plays a pivotal role in regulating plant growth, development, and stress responses. Hsf activates or represses target gene transcription by binding to the heat shock element (HSE) of downstream genes. However, the specific interaction sites between Hsf and [...] Read more.
Heat shock transcription factor (Hsf) plays a pivotal role in regulating plant growth, development, and stress responses. Hsf activates or represses target gene transcription by binding to the heat shock element (HSE) of downstream genes. However, the specific interaction sites between Hsf and the HSE in the promoter remain unclear. In this study, the critical amino acid residues of ZmHsf17 and the paralogous ZmHsf05 involved in DNA binding were identified using molecular docking models, site-directed mutagenesis, and the electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). The results reveal that both ZmHsf17 and ZmHsf05 bind to the HSE of the ZmPAH1 promoter via a conserved arginine residue located in the α3 helix of their DNA-binding domains. Sequence substitution experiments among distinct HSEs demonstrated that flanking sequences upstream and downstream of the HSE core synergistically contribute to the specificity of DNA-binding domain recognition. Comparative evolutionary analysis of DNA-binding domain sequences from 25 phylogenetically diverse species reveals that the α3 helix constitutes the most conserved structural element. This study elucidates the key interaction sites between maize HsfA2 and its target genes, providing theoretical insights into the binding specificity to the HSEs of the plant’s Hsf family and the functional divergence. Additionally, these findings offer new targets for the precise engineering of Hsf proteins and synthetic HSEs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genomics of Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Cereals)
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