About this Research Topic

Background

This Research Topic has been developed in the context of the “V Symposium on Physiology and Breeding of Cereals” being held in Lleida (Catalonia/Spain) on 8-9 May 2023.

The series of Symposia on Physiology and Breeding of Cereals has been aiming to create a fertile space for scientific exchange and to facilitate synergies between scientific groups working on issues relating to the physiology, genetics, and breeding of cereals. These Symposia were initially organized within the context of the research network on “Physiology of Yield and Quality for the Improvement of Cereals” and continue to be organized by research groups that were part of the network together with others that join this activity. We expect to attract submissions of works presented in the symposium as well as others by non-attendees.

Food security is threatened, due to population growth, increased individual demands, and alternative uses for crops including their use as biofuels. In addition, over the next few decades, climate change will affect the quantity and quality of field crops through the compound effects of elevated atmospheric CO2, as well as changing temperature and rainfall patterns. Cereals are by far the most relevant contributors to the world’s plant-derived food production. Despite the efforts made by breeding and crop management approaches, field crop production has stagnated in many regions of the world in recent years.

To keep up with near-future food demand, it is crucial to improve our knowledge of genetic and environmental factors determining crop yield and quality under a wide range of growing conditions. Despite its importance, our current understanding of the impact of environmental conditions on sustainable and more efficient crop performance is likely incomplete.

This Research Topic aims to publish papers analyzing approaches to tackle crop breeding and management strategies to enhance yield and quality attributes of crops, and on their mechanistic causes under a wide range of environmental scenarios.

The scope of this Research Topic on Physiology and Breeding of Cereals will focus on articles on new knowledge and tools (including phenotyping) for further improving yield and quality (industrial and nutritional) of cereals grown under high-yield as well as stressful (biotic and abiotic) conditions.

In particular, we are interested in:

• Multidisciplinary research manuscripts at different scales of genetics, physiology, high-
throughput phenotyping techniques and breeding ranging from the gene to the crop levels;
• Studies, involving the combination of multiple stresses (biotic and abiotic), fluctuating environments, and combinations of multiple study tools in plant agronomy and biology addressed in an integrative way;
• Meta-analyses manuscripts reporting data on crop development under a variety of
environmental conditions;
• Contributions must attest to the prospects of the study for its applicability for increasing crop productivity, nutritional value, and/or land-use efficiency under field conditions.

Keywords: cereal crops, plant breeding, plant physiology, SEFIMEC

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.

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