Molecular Mechanism for Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Vegetables

Dear Colleagues,

Abiotic stress is among the worst outcomes of climate change and represents a major threat to agriculture and concomitantly to food production. Most crops have a narrow margin of tolerance to abiotic stress. We have gained knowledge about the molecular mechanisms involved in plant adaptation, tolerance and resistance to abiotic stress, but most of the advancements in this regard have been made when performing experiments in model plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana. At the present moment, many crop genomes are available and we have new biology and molecular biology techniques that enable a deep study of the molecular basis of abiotic stress in crops, as well as the application of knowledge generated in recent years to increasing agronomical yield under adverse environmental conditions and climate change. Additionally, we welcome descriptions of the effect, at the molecular level, of biostimulants or symbiotic microorganisms (mycorrhiza, PGPR…), or of the ability of nanobiotechnology to alleviate abiotic stress.

In this Topic, we will publish recent advances on:

1. Basic knowledge on the molecular basis of abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants;
2. Systems biology approaches to study abiotic stress in crop plants;
3. Description of the molecular basis underlying the effect of natural products, biostimulants, or micorrhyzation on crop adaptation or tolerance to abiotic stress;
4. Description of the molecular basis underlying the effect of nanobiotechnology on crop adaptation or tolerance to abiotic stress;
5. Description of novel GMO crops and its performance under abiotic stress conditions;
6. Application of new breeding techniques, including CRISPR/Cas9 to increase agronomical yield under abiotic stress conditions.

Dr. Jose M. Mulet
Guest Editor

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• abiotic stress
• climate change
• environmental stress
• systems biology
• crop yield
• GMO crops
• molecular biology
• biostimulants
• nanobiotechnology

Title: Over-expression of miR398 enhances thermo tolerance via regulating antioxidant system and heat response proteins in tomato
Authors: Guochao Yan, Baoyu Li, Yuchen Hua, Qingying Huang, Guanfeng Zhou, Shuaijing Zhao, Yunmin Xu, Yong He and Zhujun Zhu
Affiliation: College of Horticulture Science, Zhejiang A&F University