About this Research Topic
Cereals are a major world crop, representing about 40% of cultivated land. For some years now, not only yield but also cereal quality has gained considerable attention. Quality refers to health, technological and nutritional value and is mainly estimated considering cereals seed composition. Yield improvement due to past breeding efforts has been negatively associated with quality, producing seed with high starch content but low-quality proteins. This has led to an increase in unhealthy diets, related diseases and animal feed of insufficient nutritional value. Furthermore, end-use of cereal derived flours is tightly associated with seed quality, especially with protein composition. Finally, cereal seed contains secondary metabolites with antioxidants and other beneficial properties, making cereals the second sources of functional foods. It is therefore not surprising that scientific research has paid much attention to improving cereals seed quality. Nevertheless, many aspects are still poorly understood. For example, it is essential to improve knowledge about regulatory mechanisms concomitantly regulating seed yield and quality, as well as to achieve a holistic view of the regulatory networks involved in seed development.
The Research Topic will provide an overview of recent and innovative findings regarding different aspects of cereal seed quality, with a particular emphasis on the mechanisms regulating seed composition. Accordingly, we aim to collect original research manuscripts, methods papers, systematic reviews, mini-review perspectives, and opinions that focus on but are not limited to the following themes:
• Functional characterization of new cereal seed quality regulators and mechanisms.
• Bioinformatics and modelling approaches elucidating the regulatory networks operating during seed development.
• Exploration and exploitation of natural genetic and epigenetic diversity associated with cereals seed quality.
• New technologies for targeting genome editing addressed to cereal seed quality improvement.
• Critical overviews about past, present, and future of cereals seed quality.
Please note that studies falling into the categories below will not be considered for review unless they are expanded and provide insight into the biological system or process being studied:
i) Descriptive collection of transcripts, proteins or metabolites, including comparative sets as a result of different conditions or treatments;
ii) Descriptive studies that define gene families using basic phylogenetics and the assignment of cursory functional attributions (e.g. expression profiles, hormone or metabolites levels, promoter analysis, informatic parameters).
The Research Topic will provide an overview of recent and innovative findings regarding different aspects of cereal seed quality, with a particular emphasis on the mechanisms regulating seed composition. Accordingly, we aim to collect original research manuscripts, methods papers, systematic reviews, mini-review perspectives, and opinions that focus on but are not limited to the following themes:
• Functional characterization of new cereal seed quality regulators and mechanisms.
• Bioinformatics and modelling approaches elucidating the regulatory networks operating during seed development.
• Exploration and exploitation of natural genetic and epigenetic diversity associated with cereals seed quality.
• New technologies for targeting genome editing addressed to cereal seed quality improvement.
• Critical overviews about past, present, and future of cereals seed quality.
Please note that studies falling into the categories below will not be considered for review unless they are expanded and provide insight into the biological system or process being studied:
i) Descriptive collection of transcripts, proteins or metabolites, including comparative sets as a result of different conditions or treatments;
ii) Descriptive studies that define gene families using basic phylogenetics and the assignment of cursory functional attributions (e.g. expression profiles, hormone or metabolites levels, promoter analysis, informatic parameters).
Keywords: cereal seed, seed quality, regulatory mechanisms, transcription factors, epigenome regulators, genetic resources, regulatory network modelling, genome editing
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
