Integrated Quality Management in Horticultural Crops: Decoding Hormonal, Transcriptional and Metabolic Interfaces
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 37
Special Issue Editors
Interests: fruit quality; color development; fruit pigmentation; ripening processes; fruit quality traits; genetic traits; biochemical traits; hormonal control; breeding strategies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: apple disease resistance; ring rot; canker host-pathogen interactions; resistance mechanisms; molecular markers; breeding disease-resistant cultivars; sustainable orchard management
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue delves into the sophisticated and multi-layered regulatory networks that orchestrate quality traits in horticultural crops. We seek to illuminate the intricate interplay between hormonal signaling pathways, transcriptional reprogramming, and metabolic reprogramming, which collectively serve as the fundamental drivers for optimizing critical agronomic and consumer-oriented characteristics. The focus encompasses enhancing nutritional value (such as vitamins, antioxidants, and specialized metabolites), bolstering resilience against diverse abiotic and biotic stresses (including drought, salinity, pathogens, and pests), and significantly extending postharvest longevity and quality retention.
Recent groundbreaking research underscores the pivotal role of dynamic cross-talk among key phytohormones—including but not limited to jasmonates, gibberellins, ethylene, auxins, and abscisic acid—and specific families of transcription factors (TFs). This complex molecular dialogue acts as a master switch, precisely modulating essential biological processes. These include the biosynthesis and accumulation of valuable secondary metabolites (like flavonoids, anthocyanins, and terpenoids), the activation of sophisticated defense mechanisms and stress acclimation responses, and the coordination of crucial developmental transitions such as fruit ripening, senescence, and seed development.
This Special Issue invites high-quality original research articles and comprehensive reviews that employ cutting-edge approaches—spanning genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenetics, advanced imaging, and CRISPR-based gene editing—to dissect these regulatory circuits. We aim to compile insights that bridge fundamental molecular discoveries with practical applications, ultimately contributing to the development of superior, high-quality, and sustainable horticultural varieties for the future. Contributions exploring model and non-model species are welcome.
Prof. Dr. Dagang Hu
Dr. Pengliang Han
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
- phytohormones
- transcription factors
- metabolic pathways
- multi-omics
- CRISPR
- postharvest physiology
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