Recent Advances in the Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Cereal Crops

Dear Colleagues,

Cereal crops, such as wheat, maize, rice, barley, etc., are the main foods worldwide. Cereals occupy nearly 75% of the total cultivated area and provide over half of the world’s caloric consumption. Benefiting from modern breeding technology, cereal yields have increased significantly in the past half-century; however, recent studies have shown that the global annual increase for major crops has slowed down to around 1% after entering the 21st century.

To address this challenge and ensure food security in an environmentally sustainable manner, breeding varieties with higher yields, superior quality, and resilience to both biotic and abiotic stresses is crucial. Diverse breeding methods, ranging from traditional to modern technologies, have been employed. Advances in biotechnology, molecular biology, genomics, and genome editing have significantly improved breeding efficiency. Additionally, all of the above approaches require diverse genetic resources and germplasms; however, an urgent issue for modern cultivars is the narrowing of genetic diversity due to domestication and selection. Therefore, marker-assisted selection (MAS) based on quantitative trait loci (QTL) or genes identified through forward and reverse genetics holds significant promise for crop breeding. This Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances in genetics, genomics, and breeding techniques for cereal crops. We invite original research and review articles that focus on, but are not limited to, the following topics:

1. Genetic analyses to uncover complex quantitative traits (particularly yield, quality, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses).
2. Genomic selection/prediction and molecular design methods for cereal crops.
3. Novel insights from traditional agronomic breeding methods.
4. Genomic analyses (re-sequence, BSA, or others) for cereal crops.
5. Domestication and selection signatures for cereal crops.
6. Identifying the desired haplotypes and MAS breeding for cereal crops.

Dr. Jindong Liu
Dr. Yamei Wang
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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.

• agronomic
• breeding
• cereal crops
• genetics
• genomics
• marker-assisted selection