Breeding for Tomorrow: Stress Tolerance in Tomato Genotypes

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change and global warming represent the main threats to many agricultural crops. Tomato is one of the most extensively grown and consumed horticultural crops and can survive in a wide range of climatic conditions. However, biotic and abiotic stresses negatively affect both vegetative growth and reproductive processes in modern cultivars, resulting in losses in yield and fruit quality traits. In this context, the main challenge for breeders is to develop tolerant plant material that can face both biotic and abiotic stresses such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, nematodes, insects, heat, cold, drought, and salinity. Over recent years, the development of next- generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and new genomic techniques (NGTs) has enabled the precise and efficient handling of genetic material, allowing for the targeted enhancement of traits such as disease resistance, yield, and environmental adaptability. Additionally, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence (AI) have streamlined data analysis, providing predictive tools to simulate breeding outcomes and optimize breeding programs. These innovations, coupled with improvements in phenotyping technologies, such as drone-based imaging and hyperspectral analysis, allow for more accurate assessments of traits in diverse environments.

This Special Issue, “Breeding for Tomorrow: Stress Tolerance in Tomato Genotypes”, will highlight advances in tomato breeding. Specifically, we look forward to receiving manuscripts (reviews and research articles) that include topics such as the selection of tomato genotypes and hybrids and the identification of key-traits (physiological, reproductive, productive, and qualitative) and genes in response to biotic and abiotic stresses using traditional breeding programs, MAS selection, the evaluation of heterosis, introgression lines or TILLING populations, omics approaches (phenomics, genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, or metabolomics), genomic selection, plant genetic engineering techniques (i.e., CRISPR-CAS9), selection methods (the application of indices and statistical models of selection), or the application of AI. More generally, any topic concerning tomato breeding in relation to responses to stress will be considered for publication.

Dr. Salvatore Graci
Prof. Amalia Barone
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 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.

• tomato
• breeding
• abiotic and biotic stresses
• hybrids
• genes
• QTLs
• next-generation sequencing
• new genomic techniques
• selection strategies
• artificial intelligence