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Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Biotechnology
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Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Biotechnology

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 June 2023) | Viewed by 8037

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Paula Batista Santos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), Associated Laboratory TERRA, Departmento de Recursos Biológicos, Ambiente e Território (DRAT), Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: molecular approaches as a tool to study agrobiodiversity and plant adaptation to abiotic and biotic stresses; transcriptomics; plant biotechnology; plant ecophysiology; biodiversity; sustainable agriculture
Prof. Dr. Luísa Carvalho

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), Associated Laboratory TERRA, Departmento de Recursos Biológicos, Ambiente e Território (DRAT), Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: abiotic stress; antioxidative response; ascorbate and glutathione; biotechnology; climate change; ecophysiology; grapevine selection; Heat shock proteins; molecular biology; ROS signaling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Olfa Zarrouk

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Associação SFCOLAB - Laboratório Colaborativo para a Inovação Digital na Agricultura Smart Control & Monitoring Department, 2560-312 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: abiotic stress; fruit quality; grapevine; grafting; plant ecophysiology; plant hydraulics; precision agriculture; rootstocks; secondary metabolites; sustainable agriculture; water stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The world population is expected to grow to almost 10 billion by 2050. To fulfil the concomitant increase in food demand, agricultural production needs to rise by 50% by 2030. In addition, climate change continually challenges our ability to feed the increasing global population, and arable lands are limited because part of them are lost by biotic and abiotic stresses, as well as by antrophic factors (e.g., pollution, soil degradation).

It is crucial to promote stand out sustainable agricultural development activities for the preservation and maintenance of natural resources; but at the same time, these resources must increase for future generations taking into account the increase in food demand.

Researchers in the area of Plant Breeding, Plant Biotechnology and/or Plant Ecophysiology are facing the new challenges of an ever-changing environment, together with new regulations aiming at a more sustainable and environmentally conscious agriculture. Under this scenario, novel challenges arise, either to better understand physiological, metabolic and molecular responses to climate change and to lower levels of fertilizers, pesticides or irrigation or to identify and characterize or to develop genotypes that show tolerance/resistance to these conditions.

In this Special Issue, original and innovative research papers and reviews, describing current advances in Plant Biotechnology (e.g., tissue culture, molecular biology, and crop improvement) that can help to face the above mentioned challenges, aiming at a more sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture, are welcome.

Dr. Paula Batista Santos
Prof. Dr. Luísa Carvalho
Dr. Olfa Zarrouk
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • sustainable agriculture
  • improved crop varieties
  • biotic and abiotic stress
  • gene expression
  • climate change
  • plant ecophysiology
  • plant breeding
  • plant stress tolerance
  • molecular markers
  • plant genetic engineering

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 2356 KiB  
Article
Essential Oil Volatiles as Sustainable Antagonists for the Root-Knot Nematode Meloidogyne ethiopica
by Jorge M. S. Faria, Leidy Rusinque, Tomás Cavaco, João C. Nunes and Maria L. Inácio
Sustainability 2023, 15(14), 11421; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151411421 - 23 Jul 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1839
Abstract
Climate change is prompting a shift of tropical pests to locations with a previously lower probability of invasion. This is the case for root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne sp., particularly of the tropical group. Among them, M. ethiopica is now considered a threat to European [...] Read more.
Climate change is prompting a shift of tropical pests to locations with a previously lower probability of invasion. This is the case for root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne sp., particularly of the tropical group. Among them, M. ethiopica is now considered a threat to European food security. The development of novel sustainable nematicides can be based on in vitro bioassays of highly active phytochemicals, e.g., volatiles from essential oils. However, a steady supply of nematodes is often very difficult and dependent on environmental conditions. In the present study, an in vitro co-culture system of M. ethiopica parasitizing hairy roots of Solanum lycopersicum was established, for the first time, to easily obtain populations of second-stage juveniles (J2). These were then used to screen the nematicidal activity of 10 volatile compounds characteristic of essential oils. Finally, information on the most successful compounds was reviewed to predict their environmental dispersion and ecotoxicological hazards. The M. ethiopica population obtained from the co-culture was morphologically similar to reported populations in natural conditions and could be accurately used in direct-contact bioassays. The aldehydes citral and citronellal induced complete mortality of the tested J2, at 1 mg/mL, while compounds from other chemical groups were not as successful. In comparison to commonly used commercial nematicides, citral and citronellal were less likely to accumulate in the water environmental compartment and have lower reported toxicities compared to aquatic organisms and to mammals. Overall, in vitro co-cultures showed the potential to expedite the screening and discovery of bioactive compounds as a contribution to the development of sustainable biopesticides, as well as to lower the impacts of modern farming on agroecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Biotechnology)
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14 pages, 3775 KiB  
Article
Sustainability on Different Canola (Brassica napus L.) Cultivars by GGE Biplot Graphical Technique in Multi-Environment
by Seyed Habib Shojaei, Khodadad Mostafavi, Seyed Hamed Ghasemi, Mohammad Reza Bihamta, Árpád Illés, Csaba Bojtor, János Nagy, Endre Harsányi, Attila Vad, Adrienn Széles and Seyed Mohammad Nasir Mousavi
Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8945; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118945 - 2 Jun 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1397
Abstract
Knowledge about the extent of genotype in environment interaction is helpful for farmers and plant breeders. This is because it helps them choose the proper strategies for agricultural management and breeding new cultivars. The main contribution of this paper is to investigate genotype [...] Read more.
Knowledge about the extent of genotype in environment interaction is helpful for farmers and plant breeders. This is because it helps them choose the proper strategies for agricultural management and breeding new cultivars. The main contribution of this paper is to investigate genotype on environmental interaction using the GGE biplot method (Genotype and the Genotype-by-Environment) in ten canola cultivars. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications to assess the stability of grain yield of ten canola cultivars in five regions of Iran, including Birjand, Karaj, Kashmar, Sanandaj, and Shiraz, within two agricultural years of 2016 and 2017. The results of combined ANOVA illustrated that the effects of the environment, genotype × environment, and genotype were highly significant at 1%. Variance Analysis showed that three environmental impacts, genotype, and interaction of genotype in the environment effect, produced 68.44%, 18.63%, and 12.9% of the total variance. The GGE biplot graphs were constructed using PCA. The first principle component (PC1) explained 65.3%, and the second (PC2) explained 18.8% of the total variation. The research examined polygon diagrams to identify two top genotypes and four mega-environments. Also, the appropriate genotypes for each environment were diagnosed. Using the GGE biplot, it was possible to make visual comparisons and identify superior genotypes in canola. Accordingly,. The results obtained from graphical analysis indicated that Licord, Hyola 401 and Okapi genotypes showed the highest yield and were selected as the most stable genotypes. Also, Karaj region was chosen as a experimental region where the screening of genotypes was very suitable. Based on the ranking of the genotypes in the most suitable region (Karaj), Okapi genotype was selected as the desired genotype. In examining the heatmap drawn between the genotypes and the investigated environments, a lot of similarity between the genotypes of Sarigal, Hyola 401 and Okapi was observed in the investigated environments. The GGE biplot graphs enabled the detection of stable and superior environments and the grouping of cultivars and environments based on grain yield. The results of this research can be used both for extension and for future breeding programs. Our results provide helpful information about the canola genotypes and environments for future breeding programs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Biotechnology)
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Review

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20 pages, 1766 KiB  
Review
Considerations on the Use of Active Compounds Obtained from Lavender
by Ana-Maria Tăbărașu, Dragoș-Nicolae Anghelache, Iuliana Găgeanu, Sorin-Ștefan Biriș and Nicolae-Valentin Vlăduț
Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8879; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118879 - 31 May 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3357
Abstract
Lavender is among the medicinal and aromatic plants with high economic value in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and aromatherapeutic industries, and in its composition has numerous compounds, such as tannins, anthocyanins, minerals, saponins, flavonoids, polyphenols, essential oil and others. The qualitative and quantitative [...] Read more.
Lavender is among the medicinal and aromatic plants with high economic value in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and aromatherapeutic industries, and in its composition has numerous compounds, such as tannins, anthocyanins, minerals, saponins, flavonoids, polyphenols, essential oil and others. The qualitative and quantitative characteristics of lavender are best highlighted by extraction techniques such as hydrodistillation, steam distillation and supercritical CO2 extraction. In the water distillation extraction method, the plants are soaked in water until boiling and steam is released, carrying the essential oils with it, which are then separated via cooling. Steam distillation is one of the most common methods used to extract essential oils from medicinal and aromatic plants. Unlike hydrodistillation, where the water is stored directly in a tank, in this method, the steam is transported into the tank from the outside and the oils are released from the plant components when the steam penetrates the structures that contain it. Essential oils contain essential compounds that have antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-fungal, etc., properties. All the component parts of lavender contain essential oils, which are distributed as follows: in leaves at about 0.4%, in stems at about 0.2%, and in inflorescences at about 2–4.5%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Biotechnology)
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