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Vegetables Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality Improvement

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A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural and Floricultural Crops".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 13712

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Wenlong Yang

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Guest Editor

Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: plant abiotic and biotic stress tolerance; molecular breeding; GA signal transduction; heterosis utilization; agronomic traits
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Xiaohui Zhang

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Guest Editor

Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: plant germplasm; genome; genome editing; interspecific hybridization; chromosome recombination
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Changwei Zhang

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Guest Editor

State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: gene editing; plant and virus interaction; vegetable molecular biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Jie Ye

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Guest Editor

Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
Interests: evolutionary genetics; natural variation; fruit development; De novo domestication; genome-wide association study

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Vegetables, which can provide a variety of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients necessary for the human body, are indispensable foods in people's daily diet. Vegetable production is greatly affected by environmental conditions. It is reported that by the end of this century, the global vegetable harvest will be reduced by more than 30% due to water shortage, higher temperature, salinity, crop disease, etc. Increasing the yield per unit area, improving the quality, and making vegetables more resilient to climate change by genetic improvement is the only way to solve this problem.

It is our great pleasure to inform you that a Special Issue focused on "Vegetables Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality Improvement" will be published in Agronomy. This Special Issue aims to highlight a range of reviews, opinions and research articles on:

Breeding for vegetable disease resistance;

Breeding for vegetable abiotic stress tolerance (drought, waterlogging, heat, frost, salinity, heavy metal toxicity, etc.);

Fast-tracking development of improved vegetable varieties with stress tolerance;

Molecular and physiological mechanisms for vegetable biotic and abiotic stress tolerances;

Development of phenotyping and genotyping methodology.

Considering your expertise in the field, we would like to invite you to submit related papers to us.

Dr. Wenlong Yang
Dr. Xiaohui Zhang
Dr. Changwei Zhang
Dr. Jie Ye
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. 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

vegetable
abiotic stress
biotic stress
molecular mechanisms
stress physiology
quality
breeding methodology
phenotyping and genotyping

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 5385 KiB

Open AccessArticle

BrDMC1, a Recombinase Gene, Is Involved in Seed Germination in Brassica rapa under Salt Stress

by Xulin Wang, Zhengqing Xie, Zhaoran Tian, Shuaipeng Wang, Gongyao Shi, Weiwei Chen, Gangqiang Cao, Baoming Tian, Xiaochun Wei, Luyue Zhang and Fang Wei

Agronomy 2023, 13(2), 595; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy13020595 - 18 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1162

Abstract

Recombinases are in part responsible for homologous recombination and genome integrity during DNA repair. DMC1 has a typical RecA domain, and belongs to the recombinase superfamily. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a potent DNA damage agent is produced during seed germination under stress conditions. DNA repair should be initiated immediately to allow for subsequent seedling development. In this study, we attempted to characterize the underlying mechanism of BrDMC1 responsiveness to salinity stress using the RNA interference approach in Brassica rapa (B. rapa). Bioinformatics and expression pattern analysis revealed that BrDMC1 only retained BrDMC1.A01 after the whole genome triplication (WGT) event and was primarily transcribed in flowers and seeds. BrDMC1 had high activity in the promoter region during germination, according to histochemical GUS staining. The data showed that salt treatment reduced the germination rate, weakened seed vigor and decreased antioxidant enzyme activity, but increased oxidative damage in BrDMC1-RNAi seeds. Furthermore, the expression of stress-responsive genes and damage repair genes was significantly different in transgenic lines exposed to salt stress. Therefore, BrDMC1 may respond to salt stress by controlling seed germination and the expression of stress-related and damage repair genes in B. rapa. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetables Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality Improvement)

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14 pages, 4123 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Silencing CaTPS1 Increases the Sensitivity to Low Temperature and Salt Stresses in Pepper

by Bingdiao Gou, Panpan Duan, Min Wei, Shufang Zhao, Yongfu Wang, Nan Yang, Gaoyuan Zhang and Bingqiang Wei

Agronomy 2023, 13(2), 319; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy13020319 - 20 Jan 2023

Viewed by 1036

Abstract

Trehalose, as a non-reductive disaccharide, plays a vital role in plant growth and development and resistance to abiotic stress. Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) is a key enzyme in the synthesis mechanism of trehalose and TPS1 genes play a crucial role in the response to abiotic stress in plants. However, it has rarely been reported that CaTPS1 responds to cold and salt stresses in pepper. To verify the function of CaTPS1 in response to cold and salt stresses, CaTPS1 was silenced by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). Subsequently, the expressions of CaTPS1, plant morphology and some physiological indexes were analyzed after cold and salt stresses in pepper. The results showed that the expression of CaTPS1 was significantly lower in CaTPS1-silenced (pTRV2-CaTPS1) plant than that in the non-VIGS (CK) and negative control (PTRV2-00) plants. The parameters of response to cold and salt stresses have changed accordingly. The chlorophyll content decreased, while the trehalose content, peroxidase (POD) activity, catalase (CAT) activity and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity increased in all treatments. However, these parameters of response to cold and salt stresses were significantly lower in pTRV2-CaTPS1 plant than in CK and PTRV2-00 plants. This study suggested that CaTPS1 was involved in the response to cold and salt stresses in pepper. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetables Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality Improvement)

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13 pages, 2071 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transcriptome and Re-Sequencing Analyses Reveal Photosynthesis-Related Genes Involvement in Lutein Accumulation in Yellow Taproot Mutants of Carrot

by Zhe Wu, Hui Xu, Xuan Yang, Lixia Li, Dan Luo, Zhenzhen Liu and Li Jia

Agronomy 2022, 12(8), 1866; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy12081866 - 08 Aug 2022

Viewed by 1404

Abstract

Carrots accumulate numerous carotenoids in the root, resulting in different colors. Orange carrots are primarily high in α- and β-carotene, while yellow carrots are packed with lutein. This study was designed to explore the molecular mechanism underlying the yellow mutation involving lutein using a recently obtained yellow root mutant carrot (ym) via mutagenesis of an orange root wild type (wt). Microscopes were used to observe the variations in histological and cellular structures, and transcriptome and resequencing analyses were conducted for ym and wt. The root callus of ym contained fewer colored crystals and globular chromoplasts than those of wt. Based on ribonucleic acid sequencing (RNA-seq) data analysis, 19 photosynthesis-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched. Among them, there were 6 photosynthesis-related genes experiencing nonsynonymous mutations, including PSAL, PSB27-1, psbB, and three homologs of LHCB1.3, and Lut 5, the mapped gene regulating lutein content in carrot root, also had nonsynonymous mutations in ym. These 7 genes were shown to be significantly differently expressed at one or more time points during the lutein accumulation process. It is predicted that the 6 photosynthesis-related genes and Lut 5 are candidate genes for lutein accumulation, which results in root color mutation. The candidate genes identified in this study can provide a new insight into the molecular mechanism of lutein modulation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetables Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality Improvement)

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16 pages, 2268 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transcriptome Analysis of Sponge Gourd (Luffa cylindrica) Reveals Candidate Genes Associated with Fruit Size

by Shuting Qiao, Yufei Xu, Qizan Hu, Wenqi Dong, Shengmi He, Xingjiang Qi and Yuyan Sun

Agronomy 2022, 12(8), 1810; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy12081810 - 30 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2320

Abstract

Sponge gourd belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family and Luffa genus. It is an economically valuable vegetable crop with medicinal properties. The fruit size of sponge gourd presents distinct diversity; however, the molecular insights of fruit size regulation remain uncharacterized. Therefore, two sponge gourd materials with distinct fruit sizes were selected for a comparative transcriptome analysis. A total of 1390 genes were detected as differentially expressed between long sponge gourd (LSG) and short sponge gourd (SSG) samples, with 885 downregulated and 505 upregulated in SSG compared with LSG. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that the MAPK signaling pathway, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and plant hormone signal transduction were significantly enriched. The DEGs involved in the cell cycle and cell division, plant hormone metabolism, and MAPK signal transduction were crucial for sponge gourd fruit size regulation. Additionally, the transcription factor families of ERF, NAC, bHLH, MYB, WRKY, and MADS-box were associated with fruit size regulation. The qRT-PCR validation for selected DEGs were generally consistent with the RNA-Seq results. These results obtained the candidate genes and pathways associated with fruit size and lay the foundation for revealing the molecular mechanisms of fruit size regulation in sponge gourd. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetables Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality Improvement)

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15 pages, 3883 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Functional Analysis of BcSNX3 in Regulating Resistance to Turnip Mosaic Virus (TuMV) by Autophagy in Pak-choi (Brassica campestris ssp. chinensis)

by Rujia Zhang, Changwei Zhang, Shanwu Lyu, Zhiyuan Fang, Hongfang Zhu and Xilin Hou

Agronomy 2022, 12(8), 1757; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy12081757 - 26 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1481

Abstract

Sorting nexin protein is a class of highly conserved eukaryotic proteins containing the PX domain. Recent studies related to SNX in plants have focused on the regulation of abiotic stress processes, and there are few studies on the involvement of SNX in biological stress processes in plants. In this paper, a YTH assay and BiFC experiments were conducted twice to show that BcSNX3 (Brassica campestris Sorting nexin 3) interacted with CP and VPg of TuMV, and the interaction between BcATG8h (Brassica campestris autophagy-related gene 8h) and BcSNX3 was also found by YTH and BiFC. The colocalization of BcSNX3 and BcATG8b (Brassica campestris autophagy-related gene 8b) revealed BcSNX3 and autophagosome at the same place in the cell. QRT-PCR analysis showed that TuMV infection promotes the expression of BcSNX3, and the overexpression of this gene hinders the expression of autophagy-related genes and facilitates TuMV infection. VIGS was used to repress the expression level of the BcSNX3 gene in pak-choi to further study the function of BcSNX3 in the infection process of TuMV. After inoculation with TuMV, it was found that the accumulation of viral RNA in BcSNX3-gene-silenced plants was significantly less than in control plants. The accumulation of TuMV virus in the Arabidopsis snx3 knockout mutant was also less than in the wild type after TuMV inoculation. These results suggest that TuMV infection facilitates the expression of BcSNX3, and this gene may promote virus infection by inhibiting autophagy degradation of the virus and interacting with the CP and VPg of the virus. These results lay the foundation for the TuMV resistance breeding of pak-choi. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetables Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality Improvement)

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16 pages, 2010 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fine Mapping and Functional Analysis of Major QTL, CRq for Clubroot Resistance in Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis)

by Xiaochun Wei, Jundang Li, Xiaowei Zhang, Yanyan Zhao, Ujjal Kumar Nath, Lixia Mao, Zhengqing Xie, Shuangjuan Yang, Gongyao Shi, Zhiyong Wang, Baoming Tian, Henan Su, Zhiyuan Yang, Fang Wei and Yuxiang Yuan

Agronomy 2022, 12(5), 1172; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy12051172 - 12 May 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2237

Abstract

Clubroot disease caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae is one of the major threats to Brassica crops. New clubroot resistant varieties of Chinese cabbage (B. rapa ssp. pekinensis) have been developed through breeding, but the underlying genetic mechanism of clubroot resistance is still unclear. In this study, two Chinese cabbage DH lines, clubroot-resistant Y635-10 and susceptible Y177-47 were crossed to develop F₂ population for fine mapping and cloning resistance gene CRq. After sequence analysis, the expression vector was constructed by gateway technology and transferred into Arabidopsis thaliana for functional characterization. Bulked segregant analysis sequencing (BSA-seq) confirmed that CRq is located in the 80 kb genomic region on chromosome A03 between markers GC30-FW/RV and BGA. In silico tools confirmed that the gene length was 3959 bp with 3675 bp coding sequences (CDs), and it has three exons and two introns. In addition, we found 72bp insertion in the third exon of CRq in the susceptible line. We developed and verified functional marker Br-insert1, by which genotyping results showed that 72bp insertion might lead to the destruction of the LRR region of Y177-47, resulting in a loss of resistance relative to clubroot. The results of genetic transformation showed that the roots for wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana were significantly enlarged compared with T₂ generation transgenic Arabidopsis after treatment by P. brassicae spores, and transgenic Arabidopsis had certain resistance. Therefore, CRq is a candidate gene of clubroot disease resistance in Chinese cabbage, which could be used as a reference for elucidating disease resistance mechanisms and the marker-assisted breeding of clubroot resistant varieties. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetables Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality Improvement)

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13 pages, 4746 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Inheritance and Genetic Mapping of Late-Bolting to Early-Bolting Gene, BrEb-1, in Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa L.)

by Xiaochun Wei, Md Abdur Rahim, Yanyan Zhao, Shuangjuan Yang, Henan Su, Zhiyong Wang, Saleh Ahmed Shahriar, Jundang Li, Zhiyuan Yang, Yuxiang Yuan and Xiaowei Zhang

Agronomy 2022, 12(5), 1048; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy12051048 - 27 Apr 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2674

Abstract

Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L.) is one of the most important and highly nutritious vegetables in China belonging to the Brassicaceae family. Flowering or bolting is one of the most critical developmental stages in flowering plants. For the spring-sown Chinese cabbage, late-bolting is desirable over early-bolting according to consumer preferences. We determined the inheritance pattern of the late-bolting trait using F₁ and F₂ generated from a cross between ‘SY2004’ (late-bolting) and ‘CX14-1’ (early-bolting). The genetic analysis revealed that the late-bolting to early-bolting trait was controlled by an incomplete dominant gene that we named BrLb-1. Furthermore, we performed bulked segregant analysis (BSA) via whole genome re-sequencing and the results showed that this gene was harbored on the chromosome A07 at the intersections of 20,070,000 to 25,290,000 bp and 20,330,000 to 25,220,000, an interval distance of 4.89 Mb. In this candidate interval, totals of 2321 and 1526 SNPs with non-synonymous mutations, and 229 and 131 InDels with frameshift mutations, were found between the parents and the bulked pools, respectively. Furthermore, we identified three putative candidate genes for the late-bolting trait, including BraA07g029500, BraA07g029530 and BraA07g030360, which code for the AGAMOUS-like MADS-box protein AGL12, a pentatricopeptide repeat-containing protein and NAC transcription factor 29, respectively; however, further functional analysis is required. These genetic variants could be utilized for the further development of molecular markers for marker-assisted breeding in Chinese cabbage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetables Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality Improvement)

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