Genetics and Breeding in Cassava

Dear Colleagues,

Cassava is a major staple crop for more than one billion people worldwide and an important industrial resource for starch, bioenergy, and value-added products. Under the increasing pressures of climate change and complex agricultural environments, improving yield stability and nutritional quality in cassava has become a critical challenge in sustainable agriculture. In recent years, rapid advances in genetics, genomics, and molecular biology have substantially accelerated cassava functional studies and molecular breeding, providing powerful tools for the precise dissection and improvement of key agronomic traits.

This Special Issue will focus on core scientific questions in cassava genetic improvement and molecular breeding. It will systematically cover the genetic bases and molecular regulatory networks underlying key nutritional quality traits, including resistant starch, carotenoids, and anthocyanins, as well as the regulatory mechanisms governing carbon allocation and quality formation during storage root development. In addition, this Special Issue will highlight cassava responses to major biotic stresses, such as bacterial blight and viral diseases, and to abiotic stresses, including drought, low temperatures, and nutrient limitation, which critically constrain productivity in this crop in tropical and subtropical regions.

By integrating fundamental research with breeding-orientated perspectives, this Special Issue will provide a high-level academic platform to advance cassava bio-breeding research and support the development of high-yielding, stress-resilient, and nutritionally enhanced cassava cultivars.

Dr. Mengting Geng
Guest Editor

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