Rootstock Influence on Crop Regulation

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 (31 August 2025) | Viewed by 2569

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Guest Editor
Department of Pomology, Estación Experimental de Aula Dei-CSIC (EEAD-CSIC), Avda. Montañana 1.005, E-50059 Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: development and application of physiological, biochemical and molecular techniques for the selection and characterization of fruit trees well-adapted to Mediterranean conditions and genotyping traditional genetic resources of the genus Prunus and Malus; identification of genomic regions related to fruit quality traits and rootstocks influence; scion–rootstock graft compatibility; genetic analysis and genome-wide association; conservation of genetic resources from the Rosaceae family; breeding of fruit trees with good organoleptic properties and rich in phytochemicals compounds with roles in human nutrition and health
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is included in the field of plant genetics and metabolic analysis to improve rootstocks performance and understand how rootstock affects fruit scion phenotype, tree nutrition, fruit flavor and postharvest performance, metabolism, interactions with the environment and other organisms, and the combined genetics of composite trees. Current research is focused on different aspects of genomics and the biochemical characterization of tree physiology, which will help elucidate the genetics of important rootstocks traits. It aims to apply this information to develop tools, as high-quality markers for markers-assisted selection, transcriptomic and metabolic analyses (including metabolomics), improve fruit tree efficiency and allow for technological advances in rootstock traits determination. Scion–rootstock graft compatibility, abiotic and biotic stress factors, the development and optimization of methodologies for the quantification of phytochemical, antioxidant and biologically active compounds of scion–rootstock interaction and research on the effect of those compounds on biological systems may also be considered.

Dr. María-Ángeles Moreno
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • antioxidants
  • chromatography
  • genomics
  • graft-compatibility
  • plant breeding
  • phenolics
  • secondary metabolites
  • phytochemistry
  • metabolomics
  • metabolic pathways

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 4350 KB  
Article
Scion–Rootstock Interactions Enhance Freezing Stress Resilience in Citrus reticulata Through Integrated Antioxidant Defense and Carbon–Nitrogen Metabolic Adjustments
by Alaiha Asif, Shahid Iqbal, Carlos Eduardo Aucique-Perez, KeAndre Leaks, Rashad Mukhtar Balal, Matthew Mattia, John M. Chater and Muhammad Adnan Shahid
Plants 2025, 14(19), 3029; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14193029 - 30 Sep 2025
Viewed by 381
Abstract
Frequent and increasingly severe freezing events threaten citrus production in northern Florida, underscoring the need for strategies that enhance freezing resilience in citrus cultivars. Grafting scions onto tolerant rootstocks provides a physiologically integrative approach to improve stress tolerance. This study aims to elucidate [...] Read more.
Frequent and increasingly severe freezing events threaten citrus production in northern Florida, underscoring the need for strategies that enhance freezing resilience in citrus cultivars. Grafting scions onto tolerant rootstocks provides a physiologically integrative approach to improve stress tolerance. This study aims to elucidate how these interactions modulate physiological and metabolic responses under freezing stress, thereby identifying mechanisms that contribute to enhanced freeze resilience in citrus. Here, we grafted Citrus reticulata (cv. UF-950) onto eight rootstocks (Bitters, Blue-1, C-146, Sour Orange, UFR07TC, UFR09TC, UFR5, and US942) to evaluate scion–rootstock interactions under normal (20 °C) and freezing (−6 °C) conditions. Freezing stress caused a sharp increase in oxidative stress markers, lipid peroxidation, and membrane damage while reducing photosynthetic performance across most combinations. Antioxidant capacity, osmolyte accumulation, and carbon–nitrogen metabolic responses varied significantly among rootstocks, revealing strong genotype-dependent modulation of scion physiology. Among the tested combinations, UF-950 grafted onto UFR5 displayed the highest freezing tolerance, characterized by robust activation of antioxidant enzymes, elevated proline and glycine betaine accumulation, reduced oxidative damage, and sustained carbon–nitrogen metabolic fluxes under freezing stress. These results demonstrate that rootstock genotype governs the extent of scion defense activation and metabolic homeostasis under freezing conditions. Our findings identify UFR5 as a promising rootstock for enhancing freezing resilience in citrus and provide mechanistic insight into how scion–rootstock interaction orchestrates integrative stress tolerance pathways. Future work should focus on multi-omics dissection of rootstock-mediated signaling networks and long-term field validation to optimize rootstock selection for enhanced cold resilience under variable climatic conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rootstock Influence on Crop Regulation)
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19 pages, 3045 KB  
Article
The Impact of Rootstock on “Big Top” Nectarine Postharvest Concerning Chilling Injury, Biochemical and Molecular Parameters
by Aimar Navarro, Rosa Giménez, Jesús Val and María Ángeles Moreno
Plants 2024, 13(5), 677; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13050677 - 28 Feb 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1800
Abstract
Peaches and nectarines have a short shelf life even when harvested at appropriate physiological maturity. Market life is increased by storage at low temperatures. However, chilling injury symptoms can appear, causing physiological disorders and limiting shipping potential. The rootstock effect on the post-harvest [...] Read more.
Peaches and nectarines have a short shelf life even when harvested at appropriate physiological maturity. Market life is increased by storage at low temperatures. However, chilling injury symptoms can appear, causing physiological disorders and limiting shipping potential. The rootstock effect on the post-harvest quality has hardly been explored. Thus, the principal aim of this work was to study the influence of seven different Prunus rootstocks on the “Big Top” nectarine cv, considering harvest and post-harvest quality parameters and their correlation with chilling injury disorders. Basic fruit quality traits, individual sugars and organic acids analyzed by HPLC and other biochemical compounds such as relative antioxidant capacity, total phenolics content, flavonoids, anthocyanins, vitamin C and related enzyme activities (PAL, POD, PPO) were considered. In addition, correlations with possible candidate genes for chilling injury (CI) tolerance were searched by qPCR. Although a low susceptibility to CI symptoms has been found in “Big Top”, rootstocks “PADAC 9902-01”, “PADAC 99-05” and “ReplantPAC” exhibited lower CI symptoms. A statistically significant influence of the evaluated rootstocks was found concerning the parameters of this study. Phenols and anthocyanins seem to be important parameters to be considered in the prevention of chilling injury disorders. Moreover, PAL1, PPO4, PG2 and LDOX genes relative expressions were positively associated with chilling injury susceptibility. This study opens new perspectives for understanding peach fruit adaptation and response to cold storage temperatures during the post-harvest period. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rootstock Influence on Crop Regulation)
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