The growth and development of plants exhibit a remarkable ability to adapt to environmental changes. However, crop quality can be either enhanced or diminished when subjected to external stresses. Over the years, advanced agricultural technologies have significantly increased crop yield. However, crop quality has become a major concern for consumers due to its direct impact on human health, providing essential nutrients such as proteins, vitamins, minerals, and bioactive compounds. As a result, scientists and researchers have shifted their focus toward understanding the correlation between crop quality and environmental adaptation.

Recently, there has been growing attention to unravelling the genetic foundations of crop quality and stress adaptation. Genetic architecture dissection, metabolite identification, and candidate gene analysis have emerged as valuable approaches for improving crop quality and enhancing stress adaptation through genetic engineering or accelerated breeding methods.

Crop plants face challenges in mitigating adverse stresses compared to animals, which can significantly affect crop quality. In recent years, the frequency of natural disasters has increased due to global warming, greatly impacting agriculture.

Moderate stress can sometimes improve crop quality, enhancing fruit colouring rate, organic content, flavours, and antioxidants. However, severe stress can lead to reduced crop yield and quality. The fascinating relationship between crop quality and stress responses remains largely unrevealed, and there is a need to understand the underlying mechanisms. By gaining insights into the genetic regulation of stress adaptation and quality traits, we can further enhance crops' stress tolerance and quality.

This Research Topic aims to dissect the genetic, transcriptomic, and
metabolomic foundations of quality traits in crops while also investigating the functioning of related genes. We welcome all article types published by Frontiers in Genetics that delve into this topic, with a particular focus on:

• Exploring the genetic bases of stress adaptation and quality traits in horticultural crops, oilseed crops, and food crops using quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, genome-wide association (GWAS) analysis, and QTL-sequencing.

• Utilizing omics-based approaches to identify candidate genes and unravel the molecular regulatory pathways associated with traits related to crop quality and stress adaptation.

• Conducting functional analyses of candidate genes responsible for controlling crop quality and stress responses.

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Frontiers in Genetics

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