Maize Landraces: Conservation, Characterization and Exploitation
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Molecular Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 105
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Maize is one of the most relevant crops in agriculture worldwide and represents a staple food in many areas of the world. Currently, agriculture is challenged by environmental constraints requiring the development of new plant varieties showing genetic tolerance to stress conditions. Maize is a very diverse crop, and landraces are adapted to extremely diverse environmental conditions, thus offering a valuable genetic base to breed for tolerance to suboptimal environments.
A considerable number of maize landraces have been sampled and maintained in germplasm collections worldwide, though many are still cultivated by smallholder farmers in underdeveloped countries or to promote the establishment of niche markets.
Unfortunately, a limited fraction of the broad genetic and phenotypic diversity available for this crop has been explored and exploited in breeding programs due to limited or absent information about genetic diversity, relatedness morphology, or the agronomic potential of landraces.
This Special Issue of Plants is dedicated to research aiming to achieve the characterization, from any perspective, of maize landraces to increase the available knowledge and promote the use of such genetic resources in research, agriculture, or breeding programs.
Dr. Lorenzo Stagnati
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- germplasm resources
- biodiversity
- maize landraces
- genetic diversity
- genetic characterization
- phenotypic characterization
- agronomic characterization
- breeding
- historical information
- adaptation
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