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Agriculture
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Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crop Plants
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Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crop Plants

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2021) | Viewed by 17270

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Kevin Begcy

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Environmental Horticulture Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Interests: plant reproduction; stress biology; epigenetics; bioinformatics; cereals
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Laramy Enders

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Interests: agricultural microbiomes; plant-insect interactions; vector biology; stress biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The impact of environmental stresses on plant development and productivity has long been recognized as a major agricultural challenge. In order to cope with increasing demands for crop production, it is necessary to understand how plants respond to biotic and abiotic stresses. The impact of biotic and abiotic stress spans many levels, including declines in productivity, reproductive and developmental costs, as well as disruption of key physiological, cellular, biochemical, molecular and epigenetic procesess. Many molecular-level responses are critical to achieving stress resilience during plant development and are promising targets for improving crop protection and productivity during biotic and abiotic stress periods. In adddition, considerable recent research highlights the importance of soil microbial communities and plant-associated microbiota in mediating stress responses (e.g., pest and pathogen resistance, drought tolerance). Thus, the interesting functional potential of plant microbiota to improve stress resilience provides an additional opportunity to address current challenges in crop production.

This Special Issue on biotic and abiotic stresses, therefore, seeks contributions which present the latest advances in understanding how plants respond to biotic stresses, including damage from insect feeding, bacterial and fungal infections, as well as abiotic stresses such as extreme temperatures, salinity, water limitation, flooding and heavy metals. Research which draws upon knowledge of crop stress responses to better inform and develop management approaches that support agroecosysem health as well as stress biology research at a population or ecosystem level are strongly encouraged. We welcome original research manuscripts, method papers, reviews and systematic reviews. These include perspectives on how to develop strategies that can be utilized to accelerate plant breeding and biotechnology to improve stress resilience and crop production.

Dr. Kevin Begcy
Dr. Laramy Enders
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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

  • Stress responses
  • Abiotic stresses
  • Biotic stresses
  • Microbiota
  • Crop plants
  • Model plants
  • Epigenetics
  • Plant–pathogen interaction
 

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3158 KiB  
Article
ScRpb4, Encoding an RNA Polymerase Subunit from Sugarcane, Is Ubiquitously Expressed and Resilient to Changes in Response to Stress Conditions
by Taehoon Kim, Fábio Ometto Dias, Agustina Gentile, Marcelo Menossi and Kevin Begcy
Agriculture 2022, 12(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12010081 - 9 Jan 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2027
Abstract
RNA polymerase II is an essential multiprotein complex that transcribes thousands of genes, being a fundamental component of the transcription initiation complex. In eukaryotes, RNA polymerase II is formed by a 10-multisubunit conserved core complex, and two additional peripheral subunits, Rpb4 and Rpb7, [...] Read more.
RNA polymerase II is an essential multiprotein complex that transcribes thousands of genes, being a fundamental component of the transcription initiation complex. In eukaryotes, RNA polymerase II is formed by a 10-multisubunit conserved core complex, and two additional peripheral subunits, Rpb4 and Rpb7, form the Rpb4/7 subcomplex. Although transcription is vital for cell and organismal viability, little is known about the transcription initiation complex in sugarcane. An initial characterization of the sugarcane RNA polymerase subunit IV (ScRpb4) was performed. Our results demonstrate that ScRpb4 is evolutionarily conserved across kingdoms. At the molecular level, ScRpb4 expression was found in vegetative and reproductive tissues. Furthermore, the expression of ScRpb4 remained stable under various stress conditions, most likely to ensure a proper transcriptional response. Optimal conditions to express ScRpb4 in vitro for further studies were also identified. In this study, an initial characterization of the sugarcane polymerase II subunit IV is presented. Our results open the window to more specific experiments to study ScRpb4 function, for instance, crystal structure determination and pull-down assays as well as their function under biotic and abiotic stresses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crop Plants)
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15 pages, 2630 KiB  
Article
Transcriptome Integrated with Metabolome Reveals the Molecular Mechanism of Phytoplasma Cherry Phyllody Disease on Stiff Fruit in Chinese Cherry (Cerasus pseudocerasus L.)
by Jihan Li, Silei Chen, Weixing Wang and Chunyan Li
Agriculture 2022, 12(1), 12; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12010012 - 23 Dec 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3373
Abstract
Phytoplasma-infected Chinese cherry (Cerasus pseudocerasus L.) exhibits symptoms of phyllody and stiff fruit. To reveal the molecular mechanism of stiff fruit, the current study integrated transcriptome with metabolome. Results showed that the differentially expressed genes and the differentially accumulated metabolites were related [...] Read more.
Phytoplasma-infected Chinese cherry (Cerasus pseudocerasus L.) exhibits symptoms of phyllody and stiff fruit. To reveal the molecular mechanism of stiff fruit, the current study integrated transcriptome with metabolome. Results showed that the differentially expressed genes and the differentially accumulated metabolites were related to a high proportion of two aspects: pathogen resistance and signaling or regulatory functions, and the molecular mechanism of stiff fruit that were majorly induced by plant biotic stress response via phytohormones signal transduction, especially signal pathways of salicylic acid, auxin, and abscisic acid. Notably, there was a large overlap between phytoplasma stress response and drought stress response genes. Phytohormone content displayed significant difference that abscisic acid and salicylic acid content of phytoplasma-infected fruit were higher than that of healthy fruit, whereas zeatin, jasmonic acid, and IAA showed the opposite results. In addition, the expression of key candidate genes, including IAA4, IAA9, IAA14, IAA31, ARF5, ARF9, GH3.1, GH3.17, SAUR20, SAUR32, SAUR40, PR1a, PRB1, TGA10, SnRK2.3, and AHK2, was responsible for cherry stiff fruit. In conclusion, the current study contributed a foundation for understanding the molecular mechanism of cherry phyllody disease on stiff fruit, a better understanding of fruit development, and found the potential candidate genes involved in cherry stiff fruit, which could be used for further research in associated fields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crop Plants)
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17 pages, 4995 KiB  
Article
Durum Wheat Mediterranean Landraces: A Valuable Source for Resistance to Tan Spot Disease
by Marwa Laribi, Sarrah Ben M’Barek, Moez Fakhfakh, Amor Hassine Yahyaoui and Khaled Sassi
Agriculture 2021, 11(11), 1148; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111148 - 16 Nov 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2739
Abstract
Tan spot (TS), caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Ptr), has gained significant importance in Tunisia. In this study, a Mediterranean durum wheat collection of 113 accessions were evaluated under field conditions, during the 2018–2019 cropping season, for resistance to Ptr at Koudia [...] Read more.
Tan spot (TS), caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Ptr), has gained significant importance in Tunisia. In this study, a Mediterranean durum wheat collection of 113 accessions were evaluated under field conditions, during the 2018–2019 cropping season, for resistance to Ptr at Koudia experimental station in Bou Salem (Tunisia). The disease progress curve (AUDPC) was used to screen this collection, and the effect of days to heading (DH) and plant height (PH) were evaluated in relation to TS resistance. No significant correlation of PH with AUDPC was found, yet a significant correlation (r = 0.212, p ≤ 0.05) was established between DH and AUDPC scores, suggesting that DH may have an effect on TS development. Moreover, correlation between seedling and adult reactions was significant (r = 0.695, p ≤ 0.001). Although susceptible accessions clustered separately from resistant accessions, the clustering was independent of the country of origin and the status of improvement of the wheat accessions. In total, 67% and 80% of resistant and moderately resistant accessions, respectively, were landraces, suggesting therefore the possible presence of novel sources of resistance to Ptr in some landraces, which can be used to establish a breeding program for resistance to tan spot disease. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crop Plants)
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17 pages, 3376 KiB  
Article
An Automatic Light Stress Grading Architecture Based on Feature Optimization and Convolutional Neural Network
by Xia Hao, Man Zhang, Tianru Zhou, Xuchao Guo, Federico Tomasetto, Yuxin Tong and Minjuan Wang
Agriculture 2021, 11(11), 1126; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111126 - 11 Nov 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2018
Abstract
The identification of light stress is crucial for light control in plant factories. Image-based lighting classification of leafy vegetables has exhibited remarkable performance with high convenience and economy. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has been widely used for crop image analysis because of its [...] Read more.
The identification of light stress is crucial for light control in plant factories. Image-based lighting classification of leafy vegetables has exhibited remarkable performance with high convenience and economy. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has been widely used for crop image analysis because of its architecture, high accuracy and efficiency. Among them, large intra-class differences and small inter-class differences are important factors affecting crop identification and a critical challenge for fine-grained classification tasks based on CNN. To address this problem, we took the Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) widely grown in plant factories as the research object and constructed a leaf image set containing four stress levels. Then a light stress grading model combined with classic pre-trained CNN and Triplet loss function is constructed, which is named Tr-CNN. The model uses the Triplet loss function to constrain the distance of images in the feature space, which can reduce the Euclidean distance of the samples from the same class and increase the heterogeneous Euclidean distance. Multiple sets of experimental results indicate that the model proposed in this paper (Tr-CNN) has obvious advantages in light stress grading dataset and generalized dataset. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crop Plants)
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19 pages, 4364 KiB  
Article
A New Breeding Strategy towards Introgression and Characterization of Stay-Green QTL for Drought Tolerance in Sorghum
by Nasrein Mohamed Kamal, Yasir Serag Alnor Gorafi, Hanan Abdeltwab, Ishtiag Abdalla, Hisashi Tsujimoto and Abdelbagi Mukhtar Ali Ghanim
Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 598; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070598 - 28 Jun 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2657
Abstract
Several marker-assisted selection (MAS) or backcrossing (MAB) approaches exist for polygenic trait improvement. However, the implementation of MAB remains a challenge in many breeding programs, especially in the public sector. In MAB introgression programs, which usually do not include phenotypic selection, undesired donor [...] Read more.
Several marker-assisted selection (MAS) or backcrossing (MAB) approaches exist for polygenic trait improvement. However, the implementation of MAB remains a challenge in many breeding programs, especially in the public sector. In MAB introgression programs, which usually do not include phenotypic selection, undesired donor traits may unexpectedly turn up regardless of how expensive and theoretically powerful a backcross scheme may be. Therefore, combining genotyping and phenotyping during selection will improve understanding of QTL interactions with the environment, especially for minor alleles that maximize the phenotypic expression of the traits. Here, we describe the introgression of stay-green QTL (Stg1–Stg4) from B35 into two sorghum backgrounds through an MAB that combines genotypic and phenotypic (C-MAB) selection during early backcross cycles. The background selection step is excluded. Since it is necessary to decrease further the cost associated with molecular marker assays, the costs of C-MAB were estimated. Lines with stay-green trait and good performance were identified at an early backcross generation, backcross two (BC2). Developed BC2F4 lines were evaluated under irrigated and drought as well as three rainfed environments varied in drought timing and severity. Under drought conditions, the mean grain yield of the most C-MAB-introgression lines was consistently higher than that of the recurrent parents. This study is one of the real applications of the successful use of C-MAB for the development of drought-tolerant sorghum lines for drought-prone areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crop Plants)
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10 pages, 1523 KiB  
Communication
Comprehensive Analysis of the Histone Deacetylase Gene Family in Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa): From Evolution and Expression Pattern to Functional Analysis of BraHDA3
by Seung Hee Eom and Tae Kyung Hyun
Agriculture 2021, 11(3), 244; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11030244 - 12 Mar 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2478
Abstract
Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are known as erasers that remove acetyl groups from lysine residues in histones. Although plant HDACs play essential roles in physiological processes, including various stress responses, our knowledge concerning HDAC gene families and their evolutionary relationship remains limited. In Brassica [...] Read more.
Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are known as erasers that remove acetyl groups from lysine residues in histones. Although plant HDACs play essential roles in physiological processes, including various stress responses, our knowledge concerning HDAC gene families and their evolutionary relationship remains limited. In Brassica rapa genome, we identified 20 HDAC genes, which are divided into three major groups: RPD3/HDA1, HD2, and SIR2 families. In addition, seven pairs of segmental duplicated paralogs and one pair of tandem duplicated paralogs were identified in the B. rapa HDAC (BraHDAC) family, indicating that segmental duplication is predominant for the expansion of the BraHDAC genes. The expression patterns of paralogous gene pairs suggest a divergence in the function of BraHDACs under various stress conditions. Furthermore, we suggested that BraHDA3 (homologous of Arabidopsis HDA14) encodes the functional HDAC enzyme, which can be inhibited by Class I/II HDAC inhibitor SAHA. As a first step toward understanding the epigenetic responses to environmental stresses in Chinese cabbage, our results provide a solid foundation for functional analysis of the BraHDAC family. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crop Plants)
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