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Plants
Special Issues
Drought Stress Adaptation in Bioenergy Crops
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Drought Stress Adaptation in Bioenergy Crops

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 370

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Liang Xiao

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Guest Editor
College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China
Interests: energy crop; breeding; agronomy; GWAS; QTL; abiotic
Dr. Zemao Yang

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Guest Editor
Institute of Bast Fiber Crops, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changsha 410205, China
Interests: bioinformatics; gene editing; molecular breeding; plant biotic and abiotic stress tolerance; plant multi-omics and plant population genetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

With global climate change, the ability of energy crops such as Miscanthus, switchgrass, and energy cane to withstand drought stress has become a critical research focus. This Special Issue aims to gather the latest studies that investigate the genetic mechanisms and adaptive strategies of energy crops under water-limited conditions. We especially welcome research using GWAS, QTL mapping, phenotypic analysis, and physiological assessments to reveal drought tolerance traits and their genetic basis. Studies applying multi-omics approaches—such as genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and integrative phenotyping—are encouraged to explore gene–trait relationships, stress response pathways, and adaptive flexibility. By advancing our understanding of drought resilience, this Special Issue seeks to link fundamental discoveries with practical applications, promoting the development of high-biomass energy crop varieties suitable for cultivation on marginal and arid lands. Ultimately, we aim to contribute to sustainable bioenergy production in the face of global water scarcity. 

Dr. Liang Xiao
Dr. Zemao Yang
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

  • energy crops
  • drought stress
  • genomics
  • phenotypic adaptation
  • GWAS
  • QTL mapping
  • physiology

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 4512 KB  
Article
Soil Potassium Application Ameliorates Drought-Induced Seed Yield Loss and Enhances Nutritional and Seed Oil Quality in Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)
by Zehua Wan, Yiming Xu and Sheng Fang
Plants 2026, 15(12), 1830; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15121830 (registering DOI) - 12 Jun 2026
Abstract
Sesame is a considerable oilseed crop, but its growth and production are restricted by drought. Potassium (K) is well known for its mitigating effects against drought. Here, two consecutive years of experiments were conducted with varying K fertilizer rates (0, 60, and 120 [...] Read more.
Sesame is a considerable oilseed crop, but its growth and production are restricted by drought. Potassium (K) is well known for its mitigating effects against drought. Here, two consecutive years of experiments were conducted with varying K fertilizer rates (0, 60, and 120 kg K2O ha−1) under well-watered and drought conditions to evaluate the impacts of K on sesame seed quality. The results demonstrated that, compared to well-watered conditions, drought caused a decline in seed oil content (5.9–8.6%) but inversely induced an increase in seed K (8.5–23.8%), lignans (10.2–21.6%), and essential amino acids over a period of 2 years. Potassic fertilizer significantly increased seed K, oil, and lignans contents, aligning with ameliorative oil and protein yield relative to K deficiency plants under drought. Moreover, K supply (especially 120 kg K2O ha−1) increased proline and tryptophan contents by 5.2% and 4.9% under drought compared to the plants without K application, which contributed to producing lignans and enhancing the capacity against oxidative changes. Under drought, 60 and 120 kg K2O ha−1 application significantly increased linoleic (5.5–9.3%), and stearic acids (7.1–13.7%) content while decreasing palmitic (5.3–14.7%), oleic (4.6–6.4%), and linolenic acids (4.8–11.9%) content, respectively, thereby increasing the ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids and unsaturation index compared with control without K. Overall, K application at the rate of 120 kg K2O ha−1 could be considered as a practical and straightforward strategy to improve the quality of sesame seed products by increasing seed K, oil, lignans, linoleic acid, and unsaturated index for pharmaceutical and food purposes in areas encountering drought stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress Adaptation in Bioenergy Crops)
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