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Crop Improvement for Climate Resilience and Global Food Security
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Crop Improvement for Climate Resilience and Global Food 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 (30 June 2024) | Viewed by 8155

Special Issue Editor

Dr. J. C. Luis Jorge

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology, Area of Plant Physiology, Science Faculty, University of La Laguna, Avenida Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez s/n, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Interests: biotic and abiotic stress; priming; biostimulants; crop Production; transcriptomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Crop improvement is the process of developing new plant varieties or improving existing ones with desirable traits to increase yield, improve quality, enhance resistance to diseases and pests, and/or improve tolerance to environmental stress. This process involves several techniques and approaches such as conventional breeding, genetic engineering, and biotechnology. Conventional breeding is a process that involves crossing two different plants with desirable traits to create a new variety with the desired characteristics. The process can take many years, and it involves several steps, such as selecting the best parent plants, crossing them to create new hybrids, and testing the offspring to select those with the desired traits. Modern biotechnological interventions involve the manipulation of genes in plants to introduce desirable traits or remove undesirable ones. This process involves the use of techniques such as gene editing, where specific genes are modified or removed, and gene transfer, where genes from one species are transferred to another to introduce desirable traits. Further, frequently used techniques such as plant tissue culture enables the propagation of large numbers of plants from a small amount of tissue and genetic markers, which can be used to identify and select plants with desirable traits. Crop improvement is essential to ensure food security, improve the livelihoods of farmers, and promote sustainable agriculture. By developing new varieties that are more productive, disease resistant, and tolerant to environmental stress, crop improvement can help address the challenges of increasing demand for food and limited resources. 

This Special Issue titled ‘Crop improvement’ will cover the following topics:

  1. Impact of frequently changing climatic global conditions on crop production.
  2. Impact of abiotic stresses on global agriculture.
  3. Impact of biotic stresses on global agriculture.
  4. Using conventional breeding approaches to produce new plant varieties with high yield and stress tolerance against biotic and abiotic stresses.
  5. Using hybridization techniques in commercial crop production to produce plants that are more vigorous, disease resistant, and productive.
  6. Application of mutation breeding (radiation or chemicals) to induce mutations with new and desirable traits for the development of new plant varieties.
  7. Plant tissue culture to propagate plants with desirable traits or to produce disease-free plants.
  8. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) to identify specific genes or genetic regions associated with desirable traits. 
  9. Genetic engineering approaches for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance.
  10. Metabolic engineering approaches.
  11. Omics approaches (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.) for crop improvement.
  12. Computational biology approaches for understanding the importance of specific gene families.
  13. Next-generation sequencing of plants and pathogens.
  14. Application of biostimulants for growth enhancement and stress tolerance.
  15. Application of foliar spray of nanofertilizer for growth improvement.

Dr. J. C. Luis Jorge
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.

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 3073 KiB  
Article
Effects of Rhizobacteria Strains on Plant Growth Promotion in Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum)
by Eduardo Hernández-Amador, David Tomás Montesdeoca-Flores, Néstor Abreu-Acosta and Juan Cristo Luis-Jorge
Plants 2024, 13(23), 3280; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13233280 - 22 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1251
Abstract
Numerous factors, such as soil fertility, climatic conditions, human activity, pests, and diseases, limit agricultural yields. Pesticides and fertilizers have become indispensable tools to satisfy the global food demand. However, its adverse environmental effects have led to the search for more sustainable and [...] Read more.
Numerous factors, such as soil fertility, climatic conditions, human activity, pests, and diseases, limit agricultural yields. Pesticides and fertilizers have become indispensable tools to satisfy the global food demand. However, its adverse environmental effects have led to the search for more sustainable and ethical techniques. Biofertilizers and biopesticides based on plant- growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs) are efficient and ecological treatments that promote plant growth and protection against pathogens and abiotic stresses. In this study, twelve rhizobacterial strains with plant-growth-promoting attributes were selected to evaluate their plant-growth-promoting effect on tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L. var Robin). Soil inoculation with these strains resulted in a significant increase in shoot length, up to 50% when compared with control plants. Regarding fresh biomass, rhizobacterial treatments significantly improved seedlings’ fresh aerial weight with a maximum increase of 77%. Root biomass also demonstrated a substantial improvement, yielding 62.26% greater fresh root weight compared to the control. Finally, dry root weights exhibited the most remarkable enhancements, with values between 49 and 124%, when compared to the control plants. Concerning the nutritional status, the strains inoculation increased the macronutrients and micronutrients content in the aerial and root parts of the plants. All these findings suggest that rhizobacteria from different ecosystems and agriculture soils of the Canary Islands could be used as fertilizer inoculants to increase crop yield and promote more sustainable practices in modern agriculture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Improvement for Climate Resilience and Global Food Security)
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16 pages, 3787 KiB  
Article
Optimal Plant Density Is Key for Maximizing Maize Yield in Calcareous Soil of the South Pannonian Basin
by Ivica Djalovic, P. V. Vara Prasad, Dušan Dunđerski, Snežana Katanski, Dragana Latković and Ljubiša Kolarić
Plants 2024, 13(13), 1799; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13131799 - 29 Jun 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1199
Abstract
Plant density, the number of plants per unit area, is an important factor in maize production. Plant density exhibits high variability and depends on a number of factors, i.e., the length of the growing period of the hybrid, the morphological characteristics of the [...] Read more.
Plant density, the number of plants per unit area, is an important factor in maize production. Plant density exhibits high variability and depends on a number of factors, i.e., the length of the growing period of the hybrid, the morphological characteristics of the plant, the amount and distribution of precipitation during the growing season, the reserve of winter moisture in the soil, the level of soil fertility, the time of sowing, agronomic management practices, and biomass and yield. The objective of this paper was to determine the agronomic optimal plant density for maize in calcareous soil in the semiarid conditions of the South Pannonian Basin. Field experiments were conducted at the experimental field—IFVCNS (two locations: Rimski Šančevi and Srbobran) to evaluate four plant densities (55,000; 65,000; 75,000; and 85,000 plants ha−1). The experimental sites “Rimski Šančevi” and “Srbobran” are located in the typical chernozem zone of the southern part of the Pannonian Basin. On average for all hybrids, the grain yield followed a second-degree polynomial model in response to the increasing planting density, with the highest value at plant density (PD2: 65,000 plants ha−1). To achieve maximum yield, the optimal planting density for corn hybrids of the FAO 200 group should be 57,600 plants ha−1, for the FAO 300 group 64,300 plants ha−1, for the FAO 400 group 68,700 plants ha−1, for the FAO 500 group 66,800 plants ha−1, and for the FAO 600 group 63,500 plants ha−1. “Which–Won–Where” biplot showed that the hybrid H24 from FAO 600 group was the highest yielding in all of the environments. Hybrid H17 from the same FAO group was the most stable across all of the environments. Selected hybrids may further be studied for planting density and nutritional requirements for getting maximum yield. By introducing new maize hybrids with higher genetic yield potential and better agronomic management practices, modern mechanization and agricultural techniques allowed to increase planting densities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Improvement for Climate Resilience and Global Food Security)
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Review

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32 pages, 2011 KiB  
Review
Friends and Foes: Bacteria of the Hydroponic Plant Microbiome
by Brianna O. Thomas, Shelby L. Lechner, Hannah C. Ross, Benjamin R. Joris, Bernard R. Glick and Ashley A. Stegelmeier
Plants 2024, 13(21), 3069; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13213069 - 31 Oct 2024
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4583
Abstract
Hydroponic greenhouses and vertical farms provide an alternative crop production strategy in regions that experience low temperatures, suboptimal sunlight, or inadequate soil quality. However, hydroponic systems are soilless and, therefore, have vastly different bacterial microbiota than plants grown in soil. This review highlights [...] Read more.
Hydroponic greenhouses and vertical farms provide an alternative crop production strategy in regions that experience low temperatures, suboptimal sunlight, or inadequate soil quality. However, hydroponic systems are soilless and, therefore, have vastly different bacterial microbiota than plants grown in soil. This review highlights some of the most prevalent plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) and destructive phytopathogenic bacteria that dominate hydroponic systems. A complete understanding of which bacteria increase hydroponic crop yields and ways to mitigate crop loss from disease are critical to advancing microbiome research. The section focussing on plant growth-promoting bacteria highlights putative biological pathways for growth promotion and evidence of increased crop productivity in hydroponic systems by these organisms. Seven genera are examined in detail, including Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Azospirillum, Azotobacter, Rhizobium, Paenibacillus, and Paraburkholderia. In contrast, the review of hydroponic phytopathogens explores the mechanisms of disease, studies of disease incidence in greenhouse crops, and disease control strategies. Economically relevant diseases caused by Xanthomonas, Erwinia, Agrobacterium, Ralstonia, Clavibacter, Pectobacterium, and Pseudomonas are discussed. The conditions that make Pseudomonas both a friend and a foe, depending on the species, environment, and gene expression, provide insights into the complexity of plant–bacterial interactions. By amalgamating information on both beneficial and pathogenic bacteria in hydroponics, researchers and greenhouse growers can be better informed on how bacteria impact modern crop production systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Improvement for Climate Resilience and Global Food Security)
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