Cereal Crop Breeding, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Cereal crops, including wheat, maize, rice, and barley, serve as the primary global food source, occupying approximately 75% of cultivated land and supplying over half of the world’s caloric intake. Thanks to advancements in modern breeding techniques, cereal yields have seen substantial growth over the past five decades. However, recent research indicates that the annual yield increase for major crops has slowed to around 1% since the beginning of the 21st century. 

Developing crop varieties with higher yields, improved quality, and enhanced resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses is a sustainable and eco-friendly strategy to ensure food security. Breeding methods encompass both traditional and modern technologies, with significant contributions from biotechnology, molecular biology, genomics, and genome editing, which have greatly enhanced breeding efficiency. These approaches rely heavily on genetic resources and germplasms. Yet, a pressing challenge in modern breeding is the narrowing of genetic diversity caused by domestication and selection. Consequently, marker-assisted selection (MAS), based on QTLs or genes identified through forward and reverse genetics, plays a crucial role in crop breeding. 

This Special Issue highlights advancements in breeding techniques, such as genomic selection and genome editing, alongside new insights from traditional agronomic methods and grain production quality. We invite submissions of original research and review articles focusing on, but not limited to, the following topics:

1. Genetic analysis to unravel complex quantitative traits, particularly those related to quality and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
2. MAS breeding, genomic selection/prediction, and molecular design breeding for cereal crops.
3. Innovations in traditional agronomic breeding methods and their impact on grain production quality.
4. Domestication and selection signatures in cereal crops.
5. Identification of desirable allelic variants or breeding-available haplotypes.
6. Technological advancements in molecular breeding.

We welcome contributions that advance both theoretical and applied research in cereal breeding, aiming to address global food security challenges.

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.

• cereals
• genetic dissection
• breeding
• disease resistance
• stress tolerance
• yield
• quality
• biotechnology

• Cereal Crop Breeding in Plants (9 articles)