Molecular Mechanisms of Crop Stress Response and Photosynthetic Optimization

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue, titled ‘Molecular Mechanisms of Crop Stress Response and Photosynthetic Optimization’, is devoted to understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying crop resilience to environmental stress and the strategies to enhance photosynthetic efficiency for improved agricultural productivity. This Special Issue aims to bridge the fields of fundamental molecular biology, omics technologies, and applied crop science to address the global challenges in food security caused by climate change. We welcome researchers to submit original research articles, comprehensive reviews, and brief communications and perspectives that provide novel insights into this research field, addressing the following themes:

1. Stress signaling and response: Studies elucidating molecular, genetic, and epigenetic pathways governing crop tolerance to abiotic stresses (e.g., drought, extreme temperatures, salinity) and biotic stresses (e.g., pathogens, pests), including gene functions, signaling pathways, and transcription factor networks.
2. Photosynthetic enhancement and adaptations​​: Innovations in electron transport, carbon fixation (C3, C4, CAM), photoprotection, source–sink relationships under normal conditions or under stress, and optimizing canopy architecture for light-use efficiency.
3. ​​Cross-talk between stress and photosynthesis​​: Investigating how abiotic and biotic stresses impact photosynthetic processes and chloroplast–nucleus retrograde signaling.
4. Biotechnological applications: Breeding, engineering stress-resilient crops, improving photosynthetic capacity via overexpression, gene editing, synthetic biology, or metabolic engineering.
5. Omics-driven insights: Genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics studies revealing novel stress-responsive or photosynthesis-related targets.

Prof. Dr. Jun Liu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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