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Physio–Devo of Source–Sink Relationship Underlying Abiotic Stress Resilience in Crop...
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Physio–Devo of Source–Sink Relationship Underlying Abiotic Stress Resilience in Crop Plants

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2022) | Viewed by 10036

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Najeeb Ullah

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, Centre for Plant Science, The University of Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia
Interests: plant physiology; abiotic stresses; plant breeding; crop production
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Optimum crop yields are ensured through a coordinated source and sink relationships for assimilates and nutrients supplies during seed development. Climate changes and unpredictable weather events can strongly affect this relationship and thus yield stability, particularly when they occur during sensitive phases of crop development. Sustaining crop yield and nutritional quality under abiotic stresses requires the maintenance of this balance between source and sink relationship throughout the crop development. Grain yield is considered as the reproductive output that acts as a sink, while growth resilience is often thought of as a source that supports the reproductive organs. To enhance our ability to breed adaptive crops with resilience to individual or combined abiotic stresses, it is essential to gain a better understanding of the source–sink relationship by integrating physiology and development (physio–devo). 

This Special Issue covers original research and review articles on yield stability of crops under abiotic stresses, i.e., changing CO2 levels, atmospheric temperature, and rainfall patterns. Major aspects may include, but are not limited to, understanding the association between source–sink strengths and yield stability, characterising source–sink transition paths for resource acquisition, quantifying the impact of abiotic stresses on source–sink relations and crop yields, and adaptation mechanisms. 

Submissions on (but not limited to) the following topics are invited: (1) phenomics approaches for the identification of gene alleles underlying the physiological and morphological traits that lead to resilience; (2) modeling source–sink relationships throughout crop development under abiotic stresses; (3) cereal breeding for abiotic stress tolerance; and (4) utilization of crop wild relatives for abiotic stress resilience.

Dr. Najeeb Ullah
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. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • source–sink relationship
  • yield stability
  • abiotic stress
  • cereals
  • resilience
  • crop evolution
  • phenomics

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2649 KiB  
Article
Comparative Study on the Physio-Biochemical Responses of Spring and Winter Barley Genotypes under Vernalized and Greenhouse Conditions
by Adeela Rasheed, Qidong Feng, Muhammad Faheem Adil, Muhammad Ahsan, Zhigang Han, Fanrong Zeng and Imran Haider Shamsi
Agronomy 2022, 12(2), 339; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy12020339 - 29 Jan 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2220
Abstract
In barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) breeding, heading date is one of the most important agricultural traits that is essential for the completion of its life cycle. Certain endogenous and environmental factors regulate floral transition, morphing the complex genetic mechanism of the heading [...] Read more.
In barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) breeding, heading date is one of the most important agricultural traits that is essential for the completion of its life cycle. Certain endogenous and environmental factors regulate floral transition, morphing the complex genetic mechanism of the heading phase, which could serve as a premise of orchestration for improved yields. To elaborate the network of genetic and environmental signals, a hydroponic experiment was carried out using two spring (i.e., DM65 and DM70) and two winter barley genotypes (i.e., DM269 and DM385). Our results confirmed that the vernalized environment produced a substantial reduction in plant height, biomass and photosynthetic activity compared with the control plants. A noticeable increase in oxidative stress was exhibited by DM65 and DM70 plants compared with their respective controls at 20 °C, while no significant difference was observed for any genotype grown in the greenhouse (25 °C). Simultaneously, increased antioxidant enzyme activity in winter barley genotypes showed a defensive mechanism under vernalized conditions (4 °C). Furthermore, the expression of key regulatory flowering genes revealed that the vernalization gene (HvVRN1) is the key regulator of floral induction after cold exposure, whereas Photoperiod Response Locus 1 (HvPpd-H1) had significantly higher expression under greenhouse conditions, along with Phytochrome C (HvPHY-C), validating their involvement as upstream heading time regulators. These findings contribute to enriching the study of environmental signals that substantially modulate the complex mechanism of barley heading date. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physio–Devo of Source–Sink Relationship Underlying Abiotic Stress Resilience in Crop Plants)
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15 pages, 7577 KiB  
Article
Rendering Multivariate Statistical Models for Genetic Diversity Assessment in A-Genome Diploid Wheat Population
by Zareen Sarfraz, Mohammad Maroof Shah, Muhammad Sajid Iqbal, Mian Faisal Nazir, Ibrahim Al-Ashkar, Muhammad Ishaq Asif Rehmani, Muhammad Shahid Iqbal, Najeeb Ullah and Ayman El Sabagh
Agronomy 2021, 11(11), 2339; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11112339 - 19 Nov 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2306
Abstract
Diversifying available natural resources to cope with abrupt climatic changes and the necessity to equalize rising agricultural production with improved ability to endure environmental influence is the dire need of the day. Inherent allelic variability regarding significant economic traits featuring both enhanced productivity [...] Read more.
Diversifying available natural resources to cope with abrupt climatic changes and the necessity to equalize rising agricultural production with improved ability to endure environmental influence is the dire need of the day. Inherent allelic variability regarding significant economic traits featuring both enhanced productivity and environmental adaptability is one such prominent need. To address this requirement, a series of analyses were conducted in this study for exploring natural diploid wheat germplasm resources. The current study involved 98 Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs) populations developed by crossing two diploid ‘A’ sub-genome wheat species, Triticummonococcum and Triticum boeoticum, enriched with valuable alleles controlling, in particular, biotic and abiotic stresses tolerance. Their 12 phenotypic traits were explored to reveal germplasm value. All traits exhibited vast diversity among parents and RILs via multivariate analysis. Most of the investigated traits depicted significant (p < 0.05) positive correlations enlightening spikelet per spike, total biomass, seed weight per spike, number of seeds per spike, plant height, and days to heading as considerably focused traits for improving hexaploid wheat. Principal component analysis (PCA) exhibited 61.513% of total variation with three PCs for 12 traits. Clustering of genotypes happened in three clades, and the two parents were separated into two extreme clusters, validating their enrichment of diversity. This study provided beneficial aspects of parental resources rich in diverse alleles. They can be efficiently exploited in wheat improvement programs focusing on introgression breeding and the recovery of eroded genetic factors in currently available commercial wheat cultivars to sustain calamities of environmental fluctuations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physio–Devo of Source–Sink Relationship Underlying Abiotic Stress Resilience in Crop Plants)
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13 pages, 975 KiB  
Article
Carbohydrate Assimilation and Translocation Regulate Grain Yield Formation in Wheat Crops (Triticum aestivum L.) under Post-Flowering Waterlogging
by Shangyu Ma, Panpan Gai, Yanyan Wang, Najeeb Ullah, Wenjing Zhang, Yonghui Fan, Yajing Shan, Zhenglai Huang and Xia Hu
Agronomy 2021, 11(11), 2209; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11112209 - 30 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1856
Abstract
In a two-year field study, we quantified the impact of post-flowering soil waterlogging on carbon assimilation and grain yield formation in wheat crops. At anthesis, wheat cultivars YangMai 18 (YM18) and YanNong 19 (YN19) were waterlogged for different durations, i.e., 0 (W0), 3 [...] Read more.
In a two-year field study, we quantified the impact of post-flowering soil waterlogging on carbon assimilation and grain yield formation in wheat crops. At anthesis, wheat cultivars YangMai 18 (YM18) and YanNong 19 (YN19) were waterlogged for different durations, i.e., 0 (W0), 3 (W3), 6 (W6) and 9 (W9) days using artificial structures. Changes in leaf physiology, carbon assimilation and biomass production were quantified at 0, 7, 14, and 21 days after anthesis under all treatments. Short-term (W3) waterlogging had no significant effect on wheat crops but W6 and W9 significantly reduced the net photosynthetic rate (Pn), leaf SPAD value, and grain weight of the tested cultivars. Increasing waterlogging duration significantly increased dry matter accumulation in the spike-axis + glumes but reduced dry matter accumulation in grain. Further, the tested cultivars responded significantly variably to W6 and W9. Averaged across two years, YM 18 performed relatively superior to YN19 in response to long-term waterlogging. For example, at 14 days after anthesis, W9 plants of YM18 and YN19 experienced a 17.4% and 23.2% reduction in SPAD and 25.3% and 30.8% reduction in Pn, respectively, compared with their W0 plants. Consequently, YM18 suffered a relatively smaller grain yield loss (i.e., 16.0%) than YN19 (23.4%) under W9. Our study suggests that wheat cultivar YM18 could protect grain development from waterlogging injury by sustaining assimilates supplies to grain under waterlogged environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physio–Devo of Source–Sink Relationship Underlying Abiotic Stress Resilience in Crop Plants)
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18 pages, 5627 KiB  
Article
Mitigation of Cadmium Induced Oxidative Stress by Using Organic Amendments to Improve the Growth and Yield of Mash Beans [Vigna mungo (L.)]
by Muhammad Umer Chattha, Warda Arif, Imran Khan, Walid Soufan, Muhammad Bilal Chattha, Muhammad Umair Hassan, Najeeb Ullah, Ayman El Sabagh and Sameer H. Qari
Agronomy 2021, 11(11), 2152; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11112152 - 27 Oct 2021
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 2558
Abstract
Cadmium (Cd) stress is a serious environmental hazard that has devastating impacts on plant growth and productivity. Moreover, the entrance of Cd into the human food chain by eating Cd-contaminated food also poses serious health issues. Organic amendments (OA) possess an excellent potential [...] Read more.
Cadmium (Cd) stress is a serious environmental hazard that has devastating impacts on plant growth and productivity. Moreover, the entrance of Cd into the human food chain by eating Cd-contaminated food also poses serious health issues. Organic amendments (OA) possess an excellent potential to reduce the adverse impacts of Cd stress. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the potential of different OA in improving the mash beans growth and yield grown under Cd-contaminated soil. The soil was spiked with different concentrations of Cd (0, 10 and 20 mg/kg) and subjected to different OA, i.e., control, cow manure (5%), sugarcane press mud (5%) and a combination of cow manure (2.5%) and sugarcane press mud (2.5%). Results indicated that Cd stress induced a significant reduction in growth and yield traits, leaf water status, photosynthetic pigments, protein accumulation and anti-oxidant activities. However, the application of OA appreciably reduced the Cd-induced toxic effects and caused a significant increase in growth and yield. The application of 5% sugarcane press mud remained the top performer and it increased the mash bean growth and yield through improved photosynthetic pigments, leaf water status (56%) and reduced Cd uptake (18%), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production (38.52%), electrolyte leakage (EL) (42.13%) malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation (55.88%) and increased accumulation of soluble protein (60.15%) and free amino acids (54%) through improved activities of anti-oxidant enzymes. Therefore, these findings suggested that the application of sugarcane press mud enhanced the growth and yield through reduced Cd accumulation, enhanced photosynthetic pigments, leaf water status, protein and amino accumulation and reduced H2O2, EL and MDA accumulation through a stronger anti-oxidant defense system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physio–Devo of Source–Sink Relationship Underlying Abiotic Stress Resilience in Crop Plants)
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