Qualitative and Quantitative Plant Screening Measurements for Yield and Quality Enhancement
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 1482
Special Issue Editors
Interests: industrial plants breeding; crop production; crop science; climate change; abiotic stress; photosynthesis; agronomy
Interests: genetics and physiology of multiple-stress tolerance; maize breeding; contents of carotenoids and tools in maize grain; genotype by environment interaction in crops
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the context of changing climatic conditions, plant breeders face the challenge of creating varieties/hybrids that are adaptable, i.e., tolerant to rapidly changing and extreme weather events, as well as biotic stressors during plant vegetation. The final goal is to develop genotypes that can achieve acceptable yields in variable environmental conditions. In a world where human hunger is on the rise, it is crucial to prioritise not only the quantity of plant production used for food or feed, but also the quality of plant products.
Plant breeding programmes necessitate easy and quick tools and methods for selecting stress-tolerant genotypes. One of these tools is non-invasive chlorophyll fluorescence measurement. It is commonly applied to enhance comprehension of the mechanism of photosynthesis and studying the effects of adverse biotic and abiotic conditions on plant development. Although there are numerous studies linking chlorophyll fluorescence measurements and photosynthesis with plant physiology traits in favourable or unfavourable environments, only some of these studies have examined the relationship of photosynthetic traits with agronomic traits, plant product quality traits or yield as the ultimate goal of all crop production. Chlorophyll fluorescence measurement can be beneficial in screening for stress-tolerant genotypes, but this tolerance needs to be quantified in terms of plant yield quantity and quality to ensure the economic effectiveness of breeding programmes. Although chlorophyll fluorescence measurement is the most widely used qualitative method of detecting stress in plants, its limitation is the need for the dark adaptation of plant tissue before measurement. Other qualitative measures, such as thermography and VIS/NIR reflectance, which do not require dark adaptation, can provide continuous monitoring of extensive plant fields, increasing the throughput of data collection. These novel, high-throughput germplasm phenotyping methods are being increasingly investigated, but still need validation for more plant species.
For all the reasons mentioned above, this Special Issue aims to determine the association of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and physiology traits with plant product quality and yield. It also aims to further investigate the use of infrared thermal imaging and VIS/NIR reflectance to increase germplasm screening and data collection efficiency, thus accelerating the selection of adaptable plants with desirable traits. This Special Issue welcomes all research papers exploring the correlation between chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, physiological traits, yield and plant product quality, and those validating infrared thermal imaging and VIS/NIR reflectance for assessing plant conditions in favourable and unfavourable environments.
Dr. Antonela Markulj Kulundžić
Dr. Domagoj Šimić
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. Agronomy 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
- chlorophyll a fluorescence
- photosynthesis
- VIS/NIR reflectance
- thermal imaging
- spectral reflectance indices
- phytochemical reflectance index
- plant physiology
- breeding
- crop production
- agronomic traits
- yield
- yield components
- plant quality genotype
- unfavourable growth conditions
- adaptation
- tolerance
- resistance
