Numerous biotic and abiotic stresses can significantly decrease crop growth and yields. In the context of climate change, stresses will be more frequent in the coming years and will have an even more severe impact on agricultural systems. As a result, crop production could be drastically reduced, with the consequences aggravated by the fact that the world’s growing population will require more food production. Furthermore, among abiotic stresses, the salinity of soils and water for agricultural use, as well as drought, particularly impact crops. For these reasons, sustainable measures need to be implemented to maintain/increase crop production and ensure the resilience of agricultural systems. To this end, biostimulants, materials that can increase crop productivity and the quality profile of end products, are an increasingly popular solution. The primary function of biostimulants is improving nutrient use efficiency, quality traits, and stress tolerance, as well as ensuring the bioavailability of nutrients in the soil or rhizosphere. Therefore, this Special Issue published research on the effects of biostimulants on helping crops to cope with abiotic stresses, focusing on salt and drought stress. In addition, scientific contributions on the use of biostimulants to counteract other abiotic stresses, such as potentially toxic metals and extreme temperatures, are also welcome. New substances with biostimulant action and studies investigating the mechanisms of action of biostimulants and their qualitative, economic, and environmental benefits will also be considered.

Listed by Unglue.it.

This book contains a collection of recent peer-reviewed articles on the topic "Crop Adaptation to Elevated CO2 and Temperature" published in Plants. Topics range from meta-analyses of crop responses, to descriptions and results of large-scale screening efforts, to molecular studies of changes in gene expression related to fruit quality.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Allohexaploid bread wheat and diploid barley are two of the most cultivated crops in the world. This book reports novel research and reviews concerning the use of modern technologies to understand the molecular bases for wheat and barley improvement. The contributions published in this book illustrate research advances in wheat and barley knowledge using modern molecular techniques. These molecular approaches cover genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and phenomic levels, together with new tools for gene identification and the development of novel molecular markers. Overall, the contributions for this book lead to a further understanding of regulatory systems in order to improve wheat and barley performance.

Listed by Unglue.it.

This reprint concerns topics on chemical, functional, and technological features of wheats to obtain wheat-based foods improved in phytochemicals. Genetic materials, from landraces to ancient and modern wheat varieties, characterized for their content of bioactive compounds, were exploited to produce superior staple foods. The study of other species allowed to identify functional ingredients, in wholemeals or in their by-products, useful in the enrichment of formulations for various cereal-based products. Further, in the optic of circular economy, it is of great interest the extraction of bioactive components from food processing waste belonging to the other crops to functionalize final products.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Plants under natural conditions often face multiple stresses, including drought, salinity, temperature extremes, submergence stress, bacteria, viruses, fungi, insects, etc. These biotic and abiotic stresses negatively influence plant growth and productivity. Various approaches have recently been used to overcome stresses in plants. It is necessary to evaluate and explore how diverse molecular techniques can be applied to different biological studies to improve biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in plants. This will help reduce production losses and increase crop tolerance to various stresses. It is now the time to make a difference by developing plants that can withstand biotic and abiotic stresses.

Listed by Unglue.it.

Plants under natural conditions often face multiple stresses, including drought, salinity, temperature extremes, submergence stress, bacteria, viruses, fungi, insects, etc. These biotic and abiotic stresses negatively influence plant growth and productivity. Various approaches have recently been used to overcome stresses in plants. It is necessary to evaluate and explore how diverse molecular techniques can be applied to different biological studies to improve biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in plants. This will help reduce production losses and increase crop tolerance to various stresses. It is now the time to make a difference by developing plants that can withstand biotic and abiotic stresses.

Listed by Unglue.it.

The development of new plant varieties is a long and tedious process involving the generation of large seedling populations for the selection of the best individuals. While the ability of breeders to generate large populations is almost unlimited, the selection of these seedlings is the main factor limiting the generation of new cultivars. Molecular studies for the development of marker-assisted selection (MAS) strategies are particularly useful when the evaluation of the character is expensive, time-consuming, or with long juvenile periods. The papers published in the Special Issue “Plant Genetics and Molecular Breeding” report highly novel results and testable new models for the integrative analysis of genetic (phenotyping and transmission of agronomic characters), physiology (flowering, ripening, organ development), genomic (DNA regions responsible for the different agronomic characters), transcriptomic (gene expression analysis of the characters), proteomic (proteins and enzymes involved in the expression of the characters), metabolomic (secondary metabolites), and epigenetic (DNA methylation and histone modifications) approaches for the development of new MAS strategies. These molecular approaches together with an increasingly accurate phenotyping will facilitate the breeding of new climate-resilient varieties resistant to abiotic and biotic stress, with suitable productivity and quality, to extend the adaptation and viability of the current varieties.

Listed by Unglue.it.