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Agriculture
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Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops
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Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Genetics, Genomics and Breeding".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2022) | Viewed by 7369

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Dagang Hu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, Shandong, China
Interests: fruit qualities; signaling transduction; protein interaction; protein phosphorylation; vacuolar transporters; proton pumps; malate transport; anthocyanin accumulation; apple ring rot; fruit softening
Dr. Cuihui Sun

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, Shandong, China
Interests: root development; ornamental plant; nitrate; signaling transduction; regulation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Technological change has driven economic progress in agriculture and will continue to play a crucial role throughout the 21st century. The latest wave of technological change in agriculture is based on molecular biology. Will horticulture participate?

Genetically engineered crop varieties have been adopted on a wide scale in some agronomic crops, but horticultural crops face larger hurdles. High costs of research, development, and regulatory approval combined with the small acreages planted and the diversity of varieties will limit the potential for profitable applications of biotechnology to many fruits and vegetables, tree fruits and nuts, and nursery crops. In addition, there are market barriers. Like most developments in agriculture, modern biotechnology has met with spirited political opposition from some quarters. Threats of political action may discourage food manufacturers and retailers from adopting biotech products that are wanted by some consumers and may be profitable for growers.

In this Special Issue, articles (including original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, modeling approaches, and methods) that focus on biotechnology of horticultural crops are of great interest, including reliable paths to create new technologies, such as gene editing and grafting, for horticultural crops.

Prof. Dr. Dagang Hu
Dr. Cuihui Sun
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. Agriculture 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

  • horticultural crops
  • gene editing
  • grafting
  • biotechnology
  • molecular biology

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3360 KiB  
Article
Identification and Characterization of Petal Color Change from Pink to Yellow in Chrysanthemum morifolium ‘Pink Candy’ and Its Bud Variant
by Lian-Da Du, Yan-Hong Liu, Jin-Zhi Liu, Xiang-Qin Ding, Bo Hong, Da-Gang Hu and Cui-Hui Sun
Agriculture 2022, 12(9), 1323; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12091323 - 28 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2575
Abstract
Chrysanthemum, one of the most popular ornamental plants in the world, is renowned for its brilliant colors and multifarious flower types. Thousands of gorgeous chrysanthemum cultivars exist thanks to both traditional breeding techniques and its characteristic bud sporting. In this study, we identified [...] Read more.
Chrysanthemum, one of the most popular ornamental plants in the world, is renowned for its brilliant colors and multifarious flower types. Thousands of gorgeous chrysanthemum cultivars exist thanks to both traditional breeding techniques and its characteristic bud sporting. In this study, we identified a pink-to-yellow flower color-changed bud sport of the edible chrysanthemum cultivar ‘Pink Candy’. The bud variant and its parent plant bloomed at the same time, but with yellow- and pink-colored flowers, respectively. However, the two flower types exhibited strikingly different combinations and concentrations of primary and secondary metabolites, aromatic compounds, and pigments. Additionally, the expression patterns of key pigment biosynthesis genes, such as CmPAL (phenylalanineammonialyase), CmDFR (dihydroflavonol 4-reductase), CmF3H (flavanone 3′-hydroxylase), CmNXS (neoxanthin synthase) and CmCCD4 (carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase 4) were distinct between both flower types, helping to explain the color transformation of the mutant to some extent. Taken together, our results suggest a mechanism explaining the transformation of pink flowers to yellow flowers in the mutant bud sport. These results provide the foundation for the production of a novel chrysanthemum cultivar. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops)
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13 pages, 2743 KiB  
Article
A Tomato Putative Metalloprotease SlEGY2 Plays a Positive Role in Thermotolerance
by Song Zhang, Chong Chen, Shanshan Dai, Minmin Yang, Qingwei Meng, Wei Lv and Nana Ma
Agriculture 2022, 12(7), 940; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12070940 - 29 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1815
Abstract
Intramembrane proteases play very important roles in plants, such as chloroplast development, flower morphology, and response to abiotic stress. In this study, a putative metalloprotease gene, homologous to Ethylene-dependent Gravitropism deficient and Yellow-green2 (EGY2) of Arabidopsis, was isolated from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum [...] Read more.
Intramembrane proteases play very important roles in plants, such as chloroplast development, flower morphology, and response to abiotic stress. In this study, a putative metalloprotease gene, homologous to Ethylene-dependent Gravitropism deficient and Yellow-green2 (EGY2) of Arabidopsis, was isolated from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants and named SlEGY2. We found that SlEGY2 was a member of the metalloprotease family M50 which contained conserved motifs HEXXH and NPDG and was localized in the chloroplast. SlEGY2 antisense transgenic tomato plants (AS) have similar hypocotyls phenotype to the Arabidopsis egy2 mutant. Heat (42 °C), PEG, ABA and MeJA treatments can upregulate the expression of SlEGY2. Under heat stress, SlEGY2 AS lines are more sensitive, with more water loss (lower fresh weight), seriously damaged membrane, and ROS accumulation, but lower activities of APX and CAT. In addition, suppression of SlEGY2 decreases the content of chlorophyll and photosynthetic activities, especially photosystem II. These results suggest that SlEGY2 can regulate the thermotolerance of tomatoes by affecting ROS accumulation and photosynthetic activities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops)
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15 pages, 3656 KiB  
Article
Comparative Analysis of the Effects of Internal Factors on the Floral Color of Four Chrysanthemum Cultivars of Different Colors
by Jin-Zhi Liu, Lian-Da Du, Shao-Min Chen, Jing-Ru Cao, Xiang-Qin Ding, Cheng-Shu Zheng and Cui-Hui Sun
Agriculture 2022, 12(5), 635; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12050635 - 28 Apr 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2760
Abstract
Flower color, a critical phenotypic trait of ornamental plants, is an essential indicator for flower variety classification. Many physical and internal factors that affect flower color have been widely investigated; however, the effects of internal factors during the flowering period remain unknown. In [...] Read more.
Flower color, a critical phenotypic trait of ornamental plants, is an essential indicator for flower variety classification. Many physical and internal factors that affect flower color have been widely investigated; however, the effects of internal factors during the flowering period remain unknown. In this study, we evaluated the effects of internal factors on floral coloration during the flowering period of four chrysanthemum cultivars of different colors. colorimetric measurements showed that L*, a*, and b* were in correlation with the lightness and color development in the four chrysanthemum cultivars. The distinctive shape of upper epidermal cells was observed in each flowering stage of different colored chrysanthemums. With progression of the flowering process, the content of anthocyanins and carotenoids increased during early stages, decreased at the senescence stage, and was the highest at the full-bloom stage. The vacuolar pH of flowers gradually decreased as the flower bloomed. Metal contents in flowers varied across different chrysanthemum varieties. Anthocyanins biosynthesis genes, such as CmCHS and CmCHI, were expressed and responsible for pigment changes in red chrysanthemums. Moreover, the expression pattern of cytosol pH-related genes, such as CmVHA-a1, CmVHA-C, and CmVHA-C″1, was in accordance with a decrease in pH during flowering stages. Our results revealed the effects of main internal factors on floral color during the flowering period in four Chrysanthemum varieties, providing insights into the introcellular and molecular regulatory mechanisms of flower coloration and laying key foundations for the improvement of color breeding in chrysanthemums. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops)
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12 pages, 3275 KiB  
Article
Grafting Enhances Bacterial Wilt Resistance in Peppers
by Xi Duan, Fengjiao Liu, Huangai Bi and Xizhen Ai
Agriculture 2022, 12(5), 583; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12050583 - 22 Apr 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2256
Abstract
Ralstonia solanacearum is a causative agent of bacterial wilt and therefore poses a serious threat to cultivated peppers (Capsicum annuum L.). Although attempts have been made to control bacterial wilt by grafting, the disease resistance mechanisms that protect grafted peppers are poorly [...] Read more.
Ralstonia solanacearum is a causative agent of bacterial wilt and therefore poses a serious threat to cultivated peppers (Capsicum annuum L.). Although attempts have been made to control bacterial wilt by grafting, the disease resistance mechanisms that protect grafted peppers are poorly understood. Here, we grew grafted peppers composed of the rootstock Buyeding or Weishi and the scion Xinfeng 2. Following infection by R. solanacearum, we assessed the differences in lipid peroxidation, cellular structure, root secondary metabolism, and biomass, between grafted plants and controls. The grafted plants exhibited a greater root biomass than the control plants after infection. The root cell ultrastructure of the grafted plants showed only slight injury relative to that in the controls, and the roots of the grafted peppers were partially resistant to R. solanacearum. Grafted pepper plants showed lower levels of lipid peroxidation. Lignin content, salicylic acid levels, and the activities of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO), were also higher in grafted plants. All of these effects occurred concomitantly with increased R. solanacearum resistance. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that grafting can significantly improve the disease resistance of pepper. Moreover, our results suggest that the Weishi rootstock may be very useful for the prevention and control of bacterial wilt in cultivated peppers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops)
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