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Horticulturae
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Horticultural Crops against Abiotic Stresses: Adaptation Skills and Agronomic Strategies
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Horticultural Crops against Abiotic Stresses: Adaptation Skills and Agronomic Strategies

A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Biotic and Abiotic Stress".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 August 2025) | Viewed by 2352

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Eleonora Cataldo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry Sciences and Technologies (DAGRI-UniFi), Florence University, 50100 Florence, Italy
Interests: viticulture; plant physiology and biochemistry; biostimulants; zeolite; climate change; sustainability; grape quality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Giovan Battista Mattii

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Interests: viticulture; plant physiology and biochemistry; biostimulants; zeolite; climate change; sustainability; grape quality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The open access journal Horticulturae is pleased to announce that we have launched a new Special Issue, titled “Horticultural crops against abiotic stresses: adaptation skills and agronomic strategies”. Given your expertise in this field, we would like to invite you to contribute an article to this Special Issue.

The quality and quantity of horticultural crop production usually depend on the genotype, environmental conditions, and water and soil management. Abiotic stresses, such as disadvantageous environmental conditions, can make crop performance decline. Moreover, abiotic stresses, such as drought, cold, heat waves, salinity, nutrient deficiency, and ultraviolet radiation, influence the physiological and biochemical processes in crops.

A plant’s skill in facing these issues depends on its adaptation aptitude. Different approaches, including agronomical, physiological, and molecular methods, have been applied to produce plants that grow well under environmentally unfavorable conditions. Some important strategies of plant crop enhancements against stresses include several tools such as classical breeding programs, tissue culture, irrigation, biofertilizers using mycorrhizae and bacteria, biostimulants, genetic engineering, and graftings.

This Special Issue aims to collect research studies to understand the key adaptation strategies of plants that can be exploited to improve crop stress tolerance, as well as the application of appropriate agronomic strategies to counteract the negative effects of abiotic stresses.

We hope to receive your contributions so that we can share them with researchers, students, and technicians who believe in improving agriculture. We hope that you will consider this invitation, and we look forward to working with you in the future.

Dr. Eleonora Cataldo
Dr. Giovan Battista Mattii
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. Horticulturae 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 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.

Keywords

  • horticulture
  • genetic engineering
  • abiotic stress
  • water and soil management
  • drought stress

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 2510 KB  
Article
Effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on the Physiological Responses and Root Organic Acid Secretion of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Under Cadmium Stress
by Dejian Zhang, Xinyu Liu, Yuyang Zhang, Jie Ye and Qingping Yi
Horticulturae 2025, 11(10), 1204; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae11101204 - 6 Oct 2025
Viewed by 203
Abstract
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) can form symbiotic relationships with most plants. They can alleviate the toxic effects of heavy metals on plants. This study analyzed the effects of AMF (Diversispora versiformis, D.v.) on the physiological responses and root organic acid [...] Read more.
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) can form symbiotic relationships with most plants. They can alleviate the toxic effects of heavy metals on plants. This study analyzed the effects of AMF (Diversispora versiformis, D.v.) on the physiological responses and root organic acid secretion of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under cadmium (Cd) stress, in order to elucidate how AMF enhance Cd tolerance. The results indicated that when the AMF inoculation rate of tomato seedlings ranged from 26.75% to 38.23%, the AMF treatment significantly promoted tomato growth. Cd significantly reduced the agronomic traits of tomato. However, AMF inoculation dramatically lowered the Cd level from 19.32 mg/kg to 11.54 mg/kg in tomato roots, and effectively reduced the negative effect of Cd toxicity on seedling growth. Cd stress also significantly reduced the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, chlorophyll contents, and photosynthetic intensity parameters in seedling leaves, while the AMF treatment significantly increased these indicators. Under Cd stress, the AMF treatment significantly increased the activities of SOD, POD, and CAT, and reduced the levels of reactive oxygen species and the contents of osmotic regulatory substances in roots. Under Cd stress conditions, the AMF treatment also significantly increased the auxin level (57.24%) and reduced the abscisic acid level (18.19%), but had no significant effect on trans-zeatin riboside and gibberellin contents in roots. Cd stress markedly reduced the content of malic acid and succinic acid by 17.28% and 25.44%, respectively; however, after the AMF inoculation, these indicators only decreased by 2.47% and 2.63%, respectively. Under Cd stress, AMF could increase tomato roots’ antioxidant capacity to reduce ROS level, thereby alleviating the toxicity induced by ROS and maintaining reactive oxygen metabolism, enhancing the plant’s stress resistance. In summary, the AMF treatment enhances the osmotic regulation capacity and maintains the stability of cell membranes by reducing the levels of osmotic regulatory substances in roots. It also enhances the Cd tolerance of tomato plants by regulating the contents of root hormones and aerobic respiration metabolites, among other pathways. Therefore, inoculating plants with AMF is a prospective strategy for enhancing their adaptive capacity to Cd-polluted soils. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Horticultural Crops against Abiotic Stresses: Adaptation Skills and Agronomic Strategies)
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19 pages, 560 KB  
Article
Protein Hydrolysates Modulate Quality Traits of Tomato Fruit Under Salt Stress by Regulating the Expression Patterns of Genes Related to Sugar Metabolism
by Antonio El Chami, Angela Valentina Ceccarelli, Sonia Monterisi, Giuseppe Colla, Christophe El-Nakhel, Youssef Rouphael, Youry Pii and Mariateresa Cardarelli
Horticulturae 2025, 11(9), 1108; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae11091108 - 13 Sep 2025
Viewed by 410
Abstract
Salinity is a major stress factor that limits tomato yield and fruit quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether vegetal-derived protein hydrolysates (PHs) can alleviate salt stress in tomato plants and how they affect sugar metabolism at the molecular level. [...] Read more.
Salinity is a major stress factor that limits tomato yield and fruit quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether vegetal-derived protein hydrolysates (PHs) can alleviate salt stress in tomato plants and how they affect sugar metabolism at the molecular level. A greenhouse experiment was carried out to test three PHs, containing mainly peptides and aminoacids and derived from the enzymatic hydrolysis of protein sources belonging to Leguminosae (PH1), Malvaceae (PH2), and Solanaceae (PH3) plants under non-saline (1 mM NaCl) and saline (50 mM NaCl) conditions. PH1 and PH3 increased marketable yield under non-saline conditions, while no yield improvement was observed under salinity. Nevertheless, all PHs reduced leaf Cl− accumulation and improved fruit nutritional quality by increasing antioxidant activity and total phenol content. Under salt stress, PH1 and PH2 raised the content of total soluble solids, whereas PH3 enhanced titratable acidity. Gene expression analysis revealed that PHs modulated sugar metabolism, shifting it towards starch synthesis and accumulation in fruits, consistent with the observed increase in soluble solids. These results demonstrate that PHs exert family-specific effects on tomato fruit quality and provide molecular evidence of their role in metabolic adjustment under salinity. Practically, vegetal-derived PHs can represent a sustainable agronomic strategy to enhance fruit quality traits and improve tomato marketability in salt-affected cultivation systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Horticultural Crops against Abiotic Stresses: Adaptation Skills and Agronomic Strategies)
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26 pages, 3326 KB  
Article
Zeolite in Vineyard: Innovative Agriculture Management Against Drought Stress
by Eleonora Cataldo, Sergio Puccioni, Aleš Eichmeier and Giovan Battista Mattii
Horticulturae 2025, 11(8), 897; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae11080897 - 3 Aug 2025
Viewed by 584
Abstract
Discovering, analyzing, and finding a key to understanding the physiological and biochemical responses that Vitis vinifera L. undertakes against drought stress is of fundamental importance for this profitable crop. Today’s considerable climatic fluctuations force researchers and farmers to focus on this issue with [...] Read more.
Discovering, analyzing, and finding a key to understanding the physiological and biochemical responses that Vitis vinifera L. undertakes against drought stress is of fundamental importance for this profitable crop. Today’s considerable climatic fluctuations force researchers and farmers to focus on this issue with solutions inclined to respect the ecosystem. In this academic work, we focused on describing the drought stress consequences on several parameters of secondary metabolites on Vitis vinifera leaves (quercetins, kaempferol, resveratrol, proline, and xanthophylls) and on some ecophysiological characteristics (e.g., water potential, stomatal conductance, and leaf temperature) to compare the answers that diverse agronomic management techniques (i.e., irrigation with and without zeolite, pure zeolite and no application) could instaurate in the metabolic pathway of this important crop with the aim to find convincing and thought-provoking responses to use this captivating and versatile mineral, the zeolite known as the “magic rock”. Stressed grapevines reached 56.80 mmol/m2s gs at veraison and a more negative stem Ψ (+10.63%) compared to plants with zeolite. Resveratrol, in the hottest season, fluctuated from 0.18–0.19 mg/g in zeolite treatments to 0.37 mg/g in stressed vines. Quercetins were inclined to accumulate in response to drought stress too. In fact, we recorded a peak of quercetin (3-O-glucoside + 3-O-glucuronide) of 11.20 mg/g at veraison in stressed plants. It is interesting to note how the pool of metabolites was often unchanged for plants treated with zeolite and for plants treated with water only, thus elevating this mineral to a “stress reliever”. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Horticultural Crops against Abiotic Stresses: Adaptation Skills and Agronomic Strategies)
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14 pages, 1482 KB  
Article
The Physiological Mechanism of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal in Regulating the Growth of Trifoliate Orange (Poncirus trifoliata L. Raf.) Under Low-Temperature Stress
by Changlin Li, Xian Pei, Qiaofeng Yang, Fuyuan Su, Chuanwu Yao, Hua Zhang, Zaihu Pang, Zhonghua Yao, Dejian Zhang and Yan Wang
Horticulturae 2025, 11(7), 850; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae11070850 - 18 Jul 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 533
Abstract
In recent years, low temperature has seriously threatened the citrus industry. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can enhance the absorption of nutrients and water and tolerance to abiotic stresses. In this study, pot experiments were conducted to study the effects of low-temperature stress on [...] Read more.
In recent years, low temperature has seriously threatened the citrus industry. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can enhance the absorption of nutrients and water and tolerance to abiotic stresses. In this study, pot experiments were conducted to study the effects of low-temperature stress on citrus (trifoliate orange, Poncirus trifoliata L. Raf.) with AMF (Diversispora epigaea D.e). The results showed that AMF inoculation significantly increased plant growth, chlorophyll fluorescence, and photosynthetic parameters. Compared with 25 °C, −5 °C significantly increased the relative conductance rate and the contents of malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, soluble sugar soluble protein, and proline, and also enhanced the activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase, but dramatically reduced photosynthetic parameters. Compared with the non-AMF group, AMF significantly increased the maximum light quantum efficiency and steady-state light quantum efficiency at 25 °C (by 16.67% and 61.54%), and increased the same parameters by 71.43% and 140% at −5 °C. AMF also significantly increased the leaf net photosynthetic rate and transpiration rate at 25 °C (by 54.76% and 29.23%), and increased the same parameters by 72.97% and 26.67% at −5 °C. Compared with the non-AMF treatment, the AMF treatment significantly reduced malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide content at 25 °C (by 46.55% and 41.29%), and reduced them by 28.21% and 29.29% at −5 °C. In addition, AMF significantly increased the contents of soluble sugar, soluble protein, and proline at 25 °C (by 15.22%, 34.38%, and 11.38%), but these increased by only 9.64%, 0.47%, and 6.09% at −5 °C. Furthermore, AMF increased the activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase at 25 °C (by 13.33% and 13.72%), but these increased by only 5.51% and 13.46% at −5 °C. In conclusion, AMF can promote the growth of the aboveground and underground parts of trifoliate orange seedlings and enhance their resistance to low temperature via photosynthesis, osmoregulatory substances, and their antioxidant system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Horticultural Crops against Abiotic Stresses: Adaptation Skills and Agronomic Strategies)
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