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Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources: From Wild...
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Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources: From Wild Species to Traditional Landraces

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 1096

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Juozas Labokas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Economic Botany, Nature Research Centre, LT-08412 Vilnius, Lithuania
Interests: in situ conservation of crop wild relatives and medicinal & aromatic plants; biological diversity of essential-oil-bearing plants; natural products
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plant genetic resources form the foundation of global food security, ecological resilience, and future crop improvement, which is why this Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances in the conservation, characterization, and sustainable use of plant genetic diversity across the full continuum—from wild relatives and locally adapted landraces to pre-breeding materials. We welcome contributions that explore innovative conservation strategies, genomics-assisted characterization, traditional knowledge, evolutionary processes, and the integration of genetic resources into modern breeding programs. Studies addressing climate change adaptation, habitat loss, and the preservation of agrobiodiversity are particularly encouraged. With this Special Issue, we seek to bring together diverse perspectives to support the long-term safeguarding and effective utilization of plant genetic resources for sustainable agriculture and resilient food systems.

Dr. Juozas Labokas
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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

  • plant genetic resources
  • crop wild relatives
  • landraces
  • agrobiodiversity
  • genetic diversity
  • conservation strategies
  • in situ conservation
  • ex situ conservation
  • sustainable utilization
  • pre-breeding

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 9003 KB  
Article
Pan-Plastome Evolution and Metabolite Variation Provide Insights to Conservation of the Tibetan Medicinal Plant Mirabilis himalaica
by Yuxuan He, Nan Lin, Beier Duan, Jinhao Wang, Xiankun Wang, Zeyuan Cao and Song Song
Plants 2026, 15(11), 1691; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15111691 - 30 May 2026
Viewed by 102
Abstract
Mirabilis himalaica is an endemic Tibetan medicinal plant distributed from the Western Himalaya to the Hengduan Mountains, highly regarded for its abundant flavonoids. Traditional knowledge holds that its medicinal properties vary considerably with geographic origin, yet the genetic and metabolic basis of this [...] Read more.
Mirabilis himalaica is an endemic Tibetan medicinal plant distributed from the Western Himalaya to the Hengduan Mountains, highly regarded for its abundant flavonoids. Traditional knowledge holds that its medicinal properties vary considerably with geographic origin, yet the genetic and metabolic basis of this differentiation remains poorly understood. Here, we integrated plastome resequencing of 134 individuals from 23 populations with metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of three representative sites to investigate population genetic variation and flavonoid metabolic differentiation. Pan-plastome revealed a typical quadripartite structure (154,232–154,422 bp) containing 113 unique genes across M. himalaica. A total of 620 SNVs, 171 indels, and four small inversions were identified from the pan-plastome, and further analyses based on these variants supported the delineation of four genetic lineages across all individuals. Overall genetic diversity was high (HT = 0.985, HS = 0.580), with majority variation occurring among groups (71.038%). Both IBD and IBE analyses found a significantly positive correlation between genetic distance and geographic and environmental distance (IBD: r = 0.348, p = 0.001; IBE: r = 0.219, p = 0.016). Flavonoids represented the most abundant metabolites (19.5%) and showed significantly higher accumulation in high-altitude populations, where key biosynthetic genes (e.g., CHS) were upregulated. Notably, these altitude-associated metabolic patterns were observed independently of the plastome-based genetic lineages. Together, we propose defining four evolutionary lineages as conservation units and prioritizing populations with unique haplotypes. This study provides critical genomic resources for provenance tracing, quality evaluation, and conservation management of this endangered Tibetan medicinal plant, and offers preliminary insights into the parallel patterns of pan-plastome variation and altitude-related metabolic differentiation, though without evidencing a direct causal link between them. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources: From Wild Species to Traditional Landraces)
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17 pages, 3362 KB  
Article
Agro-Morphological and Cytogenetic Characterization of Hibiscus Genetic Resources: Implications for Germplasm Conservation and Interspecific Breeding
by Yaqoob Sultan, Deen Mohammad Deepo, Ki-Byung Lim and Eglė Norkevičienė
Plants 2026, 15(11), 1633; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15111633 - 26 May 2026
Viewed by 294
Abstract
Plant genetic resources are vital for crop improvement, ecological resilience, and agrobiodiversity conservation, making their characterization through morphological and cytogenetic methods essential for breeding and germplasm management. This study comparatively analyzed two herbaceous cultivars Hibiscus moscheutos cv. ‘Carousel Jolly Heart’ and cv. ‘Carousel [...] Read more.
Plant genetic resources are vital for crop improvement, ecological resilience, and agrobiodiversity conservation, making their characterization through morphological and cytogenetic methods essential for breeding and germplasm management. This study comparatively analyzed two herbaceous cultivars Hibiscus moscheutos cv. ‘Carousel Jolly Heart’ and cv. ‘Carousel Pink Passion’ and two woody cultivars, Hibiscus syriacus cv. ‘Sukim’ and cv. ‘Freedom’, to assess interspecific diversity and hybridization potential. Morphological assessments revealed notable differences in flower size and leaf shape between species, with ‘Carousel Pink Passion’ exhibiting the largest flower diameter (16.70 cm) and ‘Freedom’ exhibiting the smallest (10.20 cm). Chromosome analysis confirmed diploidy (2n = 38) in H. moscheutos and polyploidy (2n = 84) in H. syriacus, highlighting a fundamental genomic distinction between the two species. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) consistently identified two 5S rDNA loci across all cultivars; however, species-specific variation in 18S rDNA loci was detected with four loci in H. syriacus and six in H. moscheutos, suggesting divergent rDNA evolution and distinct genomic organization in the two species. Flow cytometry confirmed significant differences in nuclear DNA content corresponding to ploidy levels: ‘Carousel Jolly Heart’ and ‘Carousel Pink Passion’ measured 2.06 pg and 2.05 pg, respectively, while ‘Sukim’ and ‘Freedom’ measured 4.18 pg and 4.27 pg, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources: From Wild Species to Traditional Landraces)
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12 pages, 1460 KB  
Article
ITS-Supported Species Discrimination and ISSR-Based Genetic Diversity and Population Differentiation of Lumnitzera littorea in Southern Vietnam
by Duc-Hoan Huynh, The-Kiet Bui-Nguyen, Huu-Nghia Nguyen, Thanh-Cong Nguyen and Hoang-Dung Tran
Plants 2026, 15(10), 1569; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15101569 - 21 May 2026
Viewed by 385
Abstract
Lumnitzera littorea is a rare, conservation-relevant mangrove tree with discontinuous records in southern Vietnam, but population-level genetic evidence remains limited. This study combined nuclear rDNA ITS and ISSR markers to distinguish species-level support from population-level comparisons. Can Gio was treated as the focal [...] Read more.
Lumnitzera littorea is a rare, conservation-relevant mangrove tree with discontinuous records in southern Vietnam, but population-level genetic evidence remains limited. This study combined nuclear rDNA ITS and ISSR markers to distinguish species-level support from population-level comparisons. Can Gio was treated as the focal population, while Dong Nai, Phu Quoc, and Con Dao were used as comparison populations. The 16 study-generated ITS sequences, deposited as PZ348213–PZ348228, supported species-level separation between L. littorea and L. racemosa, with a between-species p-distance of 0.0459 and 32 fixed diagnostic sites across the 697 bp core. The ISSR matrix comprised 115 individuals and 81 loci, and population analyses were restricted to 110 L. littorea individuals. Within this dataset, Dong Nai and Can Gio showed higher ISSR diversity than Con Dao and Phu Quoc. AMOVA indicated significant differentiation among populations (Phi_PT = 0.255, p = 0.001), with 74.5% of variation retained within populations; a mainland–island grouping was also significant (Phi_PT = 0.242, p = 0.001). Repeated n = 20 subsampling retained the relative diversity pattern. The results provide a regional ISSR baseline for conservation-genetics interpretation and support broad representation of local source trees when collecting conservation material; however, they do not define formal management units, official seed-transfer zones, or deep phylogeographic history. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources: From Wild Species to Traditional Landraces)
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