Special Issue "Advances in Genetics and Breeding of Grain Crops"
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2023 | Viewed by 22183
Special Issue Editors
Interests: crop genetics and genomics; marker-assisted breeding; disease resistance in plants; abiotic stress tolerance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: plant genetic improvement; plant genetic resources; integrated crop production systems; bioprospecting of natural products; nutrigenomic
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
All the human inhabitants and domesticated animals of our planet depend on grain crops for food and feed. Grain crops are field crops, and are categorized into major cereals (wheat, rice, maize, and rye), minor cereals (barley and oat), small grains (sorghum, teff, and millets), pseudocereals (quinoa and buckwheat), legumes (groundnut, soybean, pea, chickpea, cowpea, bean, lentil and grams), and others (e.g., sesame). These grain crops are used as major carbohydrate sources, protein sources, and edible oils. However, the ongoing changing climate negatively impacts grain crops by reducing the yield and quality attributes. Breeding these crops is a means of sustainable agriculture, in order to produce climate-smart grain with higher productivity and nutritive quality. Grain researchers are attempting to apply various approaches to improve grains, some of which follow: manipulating agronomical practices, assessing the interaction of the crops with multiple environments, breeding strategies involving the incorporation of beneficial traits, utilizing ever losing ancient genetic resources in breeding, high-throughput in-field phenotyping by using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and spectral platforms, finding the responsible genes and their mechanism of action for particular traits of interest, genetic analysis and QTLs for abiotic stress (drought, salinity, heat, cold, heavy metals and UV), tolerance and resistance to various diseases caused by fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens, mutagenesis and gene editing technologies to validate gene functionality, etc. As we are unable to manipulate the climate at the macroscale, scientific research on grain crops, using modern breeding technologies, can delimit the barrier to improve grains for the world's inhabitants.
Dr. Rajib Roychowdhury
Dr. Francisco Fuentes
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
- grain genetic resources
- domestication traits
- quality improvement
- yield (grain number and weight) improvement
- abiotic stress tolerance
- heavy metal stress
- disease resistance
- Genotype–environment interaction (GxE)
- genomic-assisted breeding
- UAV and spectral analysis
- marker-assisted selection and breeding
- genomics strategies to understand beneficial traits
- QTL mapping
- mutagenesis
- gene editing
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Producing haploid inducible lines by CRISPR-Cas9-mediated editing of OsMATL
Authors: Xiongxia Jin1; Jianhua Wang1; Tong Sun1; Silan Chen1; Chao Ouyang1; Yiting Mai1; Jin Yang2; Chuanying Fang3; Baoguang An1*
Affiliation: 1Hainan Bolian Rice Gene Technology Co., Ltd.
2 Nanchang University
3 Hainan University
Abstract: Traditional breeding requires multiple generations of selfing or backcrossing to obtain homozygous lines with excellent genes, but double-haploid breeding methods generally only need 2 generations, which greatly accelerates the breeding process. Double-haploid breeding process in maize has been applied for many years, and the corresponding haploid-inducing gene MATL has also been cloned. In this study, OsMATL was edited by in an elite indica rice CRISPR/Cas technology. It was found that the mutation of OsMATL leading to low seed setting rate. Two different mutation alleles (9311HI-2-5/21) were selected as male parents to pollinate with five receptors to investigate the haploid induction rate. The results showed that the haploid induction rates from different mutation alleles of the OsMATL gene varied with the highest induction rate reaching 10.34%. And the induction rates were not the same among different female parents. Overall, the haploid inducible line 9311HI-2-5 created in this study can be used in rice breeding to produce homozygous genetic resources, which would be beneficial to improve breeding efficiency.
Title: Genetic Analysis in Grain Legume (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek) for Yield Improvement and Identifying Heterotic Hybrids.
Authors: Umakanta Sarker
Affiliation: Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur-1706, Bangladesh
Abstract: The selected mungbean genotypes were investigated for combining ability and heterosis based on their yield and yield contributing characteristics. Fifteen F1 populations generated by half-diallel mating and six parental lines were planted in three replications in a randomized complete block design at the Pulse Research Center, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Ishurdi, Pabna. Results showed highly significant variations within parents and F1s and demonstrated a wide genetic variability for the studied characters. Thus, the chance of hereditary improvement utilizing the selected genetic pools of mungbean is possible. Analysis of variance indicated that genotypes, general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) mean square values were highly significant (p ≤ 0.001) for all measured traits except mean square for days to flowering, days to maturity, and pod length which indicated the genetic diversity of the parents and the importance of both additive and non-additive gene effects in the inheritance of the measured traits respectively. A higher effect of SCA than GCA was observed for plant height and seeds per pod pointed out to be the preponderance of non-additive gene effects in the expression of these characters. Based on per se performance and GCA of the parents, BARI Mung-1, PS-7 and BMXK1-14004 were found as the best general combiners for yield per plant. In the context of SCA, five hybrids viz. BMXK1-14004 × Sonali mung, BMXK1-14004 × PS-7, BMXK1-14004 × BINA Mung-8, Sukumar × PS-7, and BARI Mung-1 × BINA Mung-8 were professed as promising hybrid and good specific combiners. The most significant heterosis was observed at 26.09% over standard variety and 20.20% over better parent for seed yield per plant in the cross BMXK1-14004 × Sonali mung and BMXK1-14004 × PS-7 respectively which indicated a higher heterosis rate for yield and yield contributing traits. These parents and crosses could be utilized for further use in breeding programs to improve in yield of mungbean.
Title: Identification of Stable Rice Hybrids in Different Locations of Bangladesh
Authors: Umakanta Sarker
Affiliation: Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur-1706, Bangladesh.
Abstract: Twenty-six (26) rice hybrids were evaluated at three locations. Data were normally distributed after running the Shapiro-Wilk test. Plant height and effective tillers/hill showed leptokurtic distribution, while the rest of the attributes had platykurtic distribution. Most of the traits were significant for variety, locations, and variety × locations. For yield stability, the data were analyzed using Additive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) and Genotype and Genotype Environment Interaction (GGE). Among the 26 hybrid combinations BRRI99A × BRRI38R, BRRI hybrid dhan5 exhibited high yielding at three locations following BRRI99A × BRRI45R, BRRI99A × BRRI31R, IR79156A × BRRI38R, BRRI hybrid dhan3 were selected for mega environments: - Gaipur and Ishwardi. Among the tested location Gazipur (E2) and Ishwardi (E3) were identified as mega environments for the hybrid combination BRRI99A × BRRI36R, BRRI99A × BRRI49R, IR79156A × BRRI31R, IR79156A × BRRI38R, BRRI hybrid dhan5, BRRI99A × BRRI38R, BRRI99A × BRRI45R, BRRI99A × BRRI31R based on mean performance and stability. Gazipur and Ishwardi was the best environment because their discriminative and representative ability was remarkable. The hybrid evaluation, as well as area identification for hybrid rice breeding in Bangladesh, were revealed in this study. The hybrid BRRI99A × BRRI38R, BRRI99A × BRRI36R, and IR79156A × Rline7 belonged to the medium to long slender grain type. Nowadays, citizens of Bangladesh prefer fine-grain rice. So, these hybrids were used for commercial cultivation over locations.
Title: Genetic Variability, Character Association, and Path Coefficient Analysis in T. Aman Rice Genotypes
Authors: Umakanta Sarker
Affiliation: Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur-1706, Bangladesh.
Abstract: A field experiment was carried out with 20 genotypes of T. Aman rice at the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Salna, Gazipur-1706. The study was performed to evaluate the genetic variability, character association, and path coefficient based on yield and different yield contributing agronomic characters. Significant variations were observed among the genotypes for all the characters studied. The high mean, range, and genotypic variances observed for most of the characters indicated a wide range of variation for these traits. All the characters indicated the minimum influence of environment on the expression of the trait and genetic factors had a significant role in the expressivity of these characters. High heritability and high to moderate genetic advance in percent of mean were recorded for all the characters except panicle length. Based on mean, range and all genetic parameters, selection of all the traits except panicle length would be effective for the improvement of T. Aman rice genotypes. A correlation study revealed that selection based on plant height, number of effective tillers per hill, panicle length, number of filled spikelets per panicle, flag leaf length, spikelet sterility percentage, and harvest index would be effective for increasing the grain yield of rice. Path coefficient analysis revealed that direct selection of the number of filled spikelets per panicle, spikelet sterility%, and harvest index would be effective for improving the grain yield of rice.
Title: Variability in Intraspecies population for the Seed Coat attributes in Amaranth grains
Authors: Jagatam Patayam Tahadam Dhadayam
Affiliation: Cytogenetics and Plant Breeding Section, Botany Department (UGC-CAS), The University of
Burdwan, Burdwan-713104, West Bengal, India
Abstract: Seed character is an important part of any crop plant. The seeds of Amaranthus hybridus (Family-Amaranthaceae) are small in size and not possible to differentiate easily with naked eyes. A little work has been focused on seed morphology of Amaranthus hybridus but no specific work on seed micromorphology has yet been documented. Keeping all these views in mind, we have undertaken the venture for observing possible microfeatures under Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The micro-morphological typology of seed surfaces was investigated in eight accessions of Amaranthus hybridus using scanning electron microscopy. Morphological studies showed that seeds were either pyriform or sub-pyriform or sub-spherical in shape. Pleurogram was found on the seed surface in some accessions. The ornamentations of exo-testa were found to be either polygonal or reticular or crosslinked type or spindle shaped or scalariform or undulated lump with tertiary depositions or slits. The aim of this present study was to explore the seed characters which are useful as a tool for identifying crop species and variations among those accessions too. The micromorphological characteristics of the seed coats may provide valuable information for identification of seeds