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Plants
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Crop Germplasm Resources, Genomics, and Molecular Breeding
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Crop Germplasm Resources, Genomics, and Molecular Breeding

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Physiology and Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 927

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhanying Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant Genetics and Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Interests: plant genetics; natural variation; grain yield
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xingming Sun

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant Genetics and Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Interests: genetic diversity; drought and salt tolerance; molecular biology
Dr. Kun Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant Genetics and Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Interests: genetic transformation; gene cloning; natural variation; molecular breeding

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Crops are mainly divided into food and commercial crops, which are important raw materials for human survival. Crop germplasm resources play an increasingly important role as the core during crop breeding in terms of food security. With the development of the genome sequencing of crops and the completion of the re-sequencing of a large number of germplasm resources in recent years, it has become clear that using genomics is an effective and rapid method for discovering genes responsible for complex quantitative traits in various crops and also provide a solid foundation for exploring the genetic formation of important agronomic traits and improving the environmental adaptability of crops via molecular breeding techniques in the future. Germplasm resources are the vital basis of crops’ genetic improvement. However, a few genes from the natural germplasm have been cloned, validated, and dissected for their genetic mechanisms in various crops so far. Therefore, it is of great significance to accelerate the accurate identification of crop genetic resources and their regulation during development via combining genomics and molecular breeding techniques, including crop plants’ architecture, grain yield, biotic and abiotic stresses responses, and so on. Thus, this journal (Plants) has organized a Special Issue on ‘Crop Germplasm Resources, Genomics, and Molecular Breeding’, providing an excellent platform for present research on crop germplasm resources, genomics, and molecular breeding.

Dr. Zhanying Zhang
Dr. Xingming Sun
Dr. Kun Zhang
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

  • crops
  • germplasm
  • genomics
  • molecular breeding

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

23 pages, 3699 KiB  
Article
Transcriptome Analysis Reveals the Pivotal Genes and Regulation Pathways Under Cold Stress and Identifies SbERF027, an AP2/ERF Gene That Confers Cold Tolerance in Sorghum
by Qijin Lou, Peifeng Wang, Miao Yu, Zhigan Xie, Chen Xu, Shengyu Chen, Hao Yu, Rui Zhang, Guangling Tian, Di Hao, Xianshi Ke, Shuai Yu, Jiajia Zhou, Yao Zhao, Chao Ye, Jiyuan Guo, Haiyan Zhang, Mo Chen and Xingbei Liu
Plants 2025, 14(6), 879; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14060879 - 11 Mar 2025
Viewed by 701
Abstract
Low temperature at the seedling stage adversely affects sorghum growth and development and limits its geographical distribution. APETALA2/Ethylene-Responsive transcription factors (AP2/ERFs), one of the largest transcription factor families in plants, play essential roles in growth, development, and responses to abiotic stresses. However, the [...] Read more.
Low temperature at the seedling stage adversely affects sorghum growth and development and limits its geographical distribution. APETALA2/Ethylene-Responsive transcription factors (AP2/ERFs), one of the largest transcription factor families in plants, play essential roles in growth, development, and responses to abiotic stresses. However, the roles of AP2/ERF genes in cold tolerance in sorghum and the mechanisms underlying their effects remain largely unknown. Here, transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed on the leaves of sorghum seedlings before and after cold treatment. Several candidate genes for cold tolerance and regulation pathways involved in “photosynthesis” under cold stress were identified via Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment. Additionally, the AP2/ERF family gene SbERF027, a novel regulator of cold tolerance, was functionally identified through a comprehensive analysis. The expression of SbERF027 was high in seedlings and panicles, and its expression was induced by low temperature; the cold-induced expression level of SbERF027 was markedly higher in cold-tolerant accession SZ7 than in cold-sensitive accession Z-5. SbERF027 was detected in the nucleus under both normal and cold stress conditions. In addition, the cold tolerance of SbERF027-overexpressing lines was higher than that of wild-type plants; while the cold tolerance of lines with SbERF027 silenced via virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) was significantly lower than that of wild-type plants. Further research demonstrated that SNP-911 of the promoter was essential for enhancing cold tolerance by mediating SbERF027 expression. This study lays a theoretical foundation for dissecting the mechanism of cold tolerance in sorghum and has implications for the breeding and genetic improvement of cold-tolerant sorghum. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Germplasm Resources, Genomics, and Molecular Breeding)
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