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Crop Breeding for Food and Nutrition Security
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Crop Breeding for Food and Nutrition Security

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2025) | Viewed by 3765

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Zerihun Tadele

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland
Interests: crop breeding and genomics; plant breeding; crop intensification; enabling environment; plant ideotype; yield potential
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Food and nutrition insecurity present significant challenges, particularly in the developing world, where crop production and proactivity are extremely low. Consequently, many countries need to import large quantities of agricultural products, which consumes a huge proportion of their resources. Crop breeding represents a major tool used to increase productivity and thereby improve food supply in terms of both quantity and quality. Breeding technologies need to be developed and disseminated to farming communities to adequately address food and nutrition security issues through the development of improved varieties. Crop breeding depends on discovering, selecting and utilizing genetic variations for the trait(s) of interest. A number of conventional and modern breeding tools have been implemented in the last 100 years to boost productivity and enhance the nutritional quality of diverse crops. New plant breeding technologies (NPBTs) have been applied in recent years to further boost productivity through increasing resilience to environmental challenges. In this Special Issue, both original research and review manuscripts related to crop breeding and their role in food and nutritional security are accepted. Hence, we encourage submissions exploring both conventional and NPBT methods of plant breeding.

Prof. Dr. Zerihun Tadele
Guest Editor

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

  • crop breeding
  • food security
  • nutrition security
  • conventional breeding
  • NPBT
  • crop productivity

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 2706 KiB  
Article
Yield Sensitivity of Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) Genotypes to Different Agrivoltaic Environments in Tropical Nigeria
by Uchenna Noble Ukwu, Onno Muller, Matthias Meier-Gruell and Michael Ifeanyi Uguru
Plants 2025, 14(9), 1326; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14091326 - 28 Apr 2025
Viewed by 344
Abstract
Genotype by environment (G × E) interaction is a magnitude change in the performance of a genotype when grown in contrasting environments. The sensitivity of a genotype to different environmental conditions is an important determinant of its suitability for cultivation in a specific [...] Read more.
Genotype by environment (G × E) interaction is a magnitude change in the performance of a genotype when grown in contrasting environments. The sensitivity of a genotype to different environmental conditions is an important determinant of its suitability for cultivation in a specific environment or across multiple environments. In many nations of the world, where the drive to achieve a net-zero CO2 emission by 2030 has spurred significant investments in clean energy sources such as photovoltaics with a resultant conversion of some agricultural lands to photovoltaic facilities, there is a need to find the right balance between addressing the food and energy crises. Agri-photovoltaics (APV) offer a sustainable solution by allowing crops to grow underneath photovoltaic panels. However, selection efficiency and repeatability of APV experimental results could be marred by the presence of G × E interaction. The study objective was to identify mungbean genotype(s) with a high yield potential and broad adaptability across APV environments. Five mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) genotypes, Tvr18, Tvr28, Tvr65, Tvr79, and Tvr 83, were assessed under six contrasting APV environments, EPV-R, EPV-D, NPV-R, NPV-D, WPV-R, and WPV-D, at the Agri-PV Food and Energy Training Center, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The experiment was a split-plot design, with the environment as the whole-plot factor while genotype was the sub-plot factor with five replications. The additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and the Finlay and Wilkinson joint regression analysis confirmed significant genotype, environment, and G × E interaction effects for mungbean seed yield. Two genotypes, Tvr28 and Tvr83 expressed broad adaptability to the APV environments with higher yields (2.60 and 2.50 t ha−1), ranking first and second, respectively. In contrast, the Tvr79 genotype displayed the highest sensitivity (2.95) to environmental variation and was unstable across the environments with higher IPCA1 and ASV scores of −1.17 and 1.39, respectively. The EPV-R recorded the highest yield (2.61) with low interaction effect (0.38), whereas the WPV-D environment had the least yield (1.71) and was the most unstable (−0.48). Conclusively, the Tvr28 and Tvr83 genotypes and the EPV-R environment were the ideal genotypes and environment, respectively, and are therefore recommended for use in APV facilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Breeding for Food and Nutrition Security)
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21 pages, 3284 KiB  
Article
Transcriptomic Profile of Tef (Eragrostis tef) in Response to Drought
by Lorena Ramirez-Gonzales, Gina Cannarozzi, Abiel Rindisbacher, Lea Jäggi, Regula Schneider, Annett Weichert, Sonia Plaza-Wüthrich, Solomon Chanyalew, Kebebew Assefa and Zerihun Tadele
Plants 2024, 13(21), 3086; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13213086 - 2 Nov 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1388
Abstract
The threat to world food security posed by drought is ever increasing. Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is an allotetraploid cereal crop that is a staple food for a large population in the Horn of Africa. While the grain of tef provides [...] Read more.
The threat to world food security posed by drought is ever increasing. Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is an allotetraploid cereal crop that is a staple food for a large population in the Horn of Africa. While the grain of tef provides quality food for humans, its straw is the most palatable and nutritious feed for livestock. In addition, the tef plant is resilient to several biotic and abiotic stresses, especially to drought, making it an ideal candidate to study the molecular mechanisms conferring these properties. The transcriptome expression of tef leaf collected from plants grown under drought conditions was profiled using RNA-Seq and key genes were verified using RT-qPCR. This study revealed that tef exhibits a complex molecular network involving membrane receptors and transcription factors that regulate drought responses. We identified target genes related to hormones like ABA, auxin, and brassinosteroids and genes involved in antioxidant activity. The findings were compared to physiological measurements such as changes in stomatal conductance and contents of proline, chlorophyll and carotenoid. The insights gained from this work could play vital role in enhancing drought tolerance in other economically important cereals such as maize and rice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Breeding for Food and Nutrition Security)
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Review

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27 pages, 5701 KiB  
Review
Morphological, Physiological, and Molecular Responses to Heat Stress in Brassicaceae
by Iram Batool, Ahsan Ayyaz, Tongjun Qin, Xiaofen Wu, Weiqi Chen, Fakhir Hannan, Zafar Ullah Zafar, Muhammad Shahbaz Naeem, Muhammad Ahsan Farooq and Weijun Zhou
Plants 2025, 14(2), 152; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14020152 - 7 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1458
Abstract
Food security is threatened by global warming, which also affects agricultural output. Various components of cells perceive elevated temperatures. Different signaling pathways in plants distinguish between the two types of temperature increases, mild warm temperatures and extremely hot temperatures. Given the rising global [...] Read more.
Food security is threatened by global warming, which also affects agricultural output. Various components of cells perceive elevated temperatures. Different signaling pathways in plants distinguish between the two types of temperature increases, mild warm temperatures and extremely hot temperatures. Given the rising global temperatures, heat stress has become a major abiotic challenge, affecting the growth and development of various crops and significantly reducing productivity. Brassica napus, the second-largest source of vegetable oil worldwide, faces drastic reductions in seed yield and quality under heat stress. This review summarizes recent research on the genetic and physiological impact of heat stress in the Brassicaceae family, as well as in model plants Arabidopsis and rice. Several studies show that extreme temperature fluctuations during crucial growth stages negatively affect plants, leading to impaired growth and reduced seed production. The review discusses the mechanisms of heat stress adaptation and the key regulatory genes involved. It also explores the emerging understanding of epigenetic modifications during heat stress. While such studies are limited in B. napus, contrasting trends in gene expression have been observed across different species and cultivars, suggesting these genes play a complex role in heat stress tolerance. Key knowledge gaps are identified regarding the impact of heat stress during the growth stages of B. napus. In-depth studies of these stages are still needed. The profound understanding of heat stress response mechanisms in tissue-specific models are crucial in advancing our knowledge of thermo-tolerance regulation in B. napus and supporting future breeding efforts for heat-tolerant crops. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Breeding for Food and Nutrition Security)
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