Advances in Utilization, Conservation, and Breeding of Crop Genetic Resources Using Omics Technologies

Dear Colleagues,

Crop Genetic Resources (CGR), the cornerstone of agriculture and breeding, efficiently support food and feed production and safety. They encompass domesticated plant species, including landraces and modern cultivars, obsolete varieties, as well as crop wild relatives. CGR represent the pool of crops’ genetic diversity that is fundamental for the breeding and development of new improved varieties for agriculture, adaptation to climate change challenges, and future needs. Therefore, CGR and agriculture are tightly linked, as agricultural production depends on the interminable and sustainable utilization of the former.

The increasing population along with climate change challenges mandate the use of rapid inventions to strengthen agricultural production and food security. With the advent of -omics technologies, the utilization of CGR has advanced rapidly, providing new opportunities for the efficient and scrupulous characterization of vital traits, conservation, and breeding. The precise high-throughput systems of -omics, encompassing multi-level innovative technologies, provide an armory of analytical tools for meticulous exploration at the cellular, tissue, and organism levels of a plant genotype and a crop.

The current Special Issue provides a platform to present research results related to all applications of advanced -omics technologies of CGR, including genomics, metagenomics, metabolomics, nutrigenomics, and phenomics tools related to conservation and utilization, as well as crop improvement and breeding, and presents current trends and future prospects for progress in crop science and horticulture.

Dr. Photini V. Mylona
Guest Editor

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