About this Research Topic
Apple (Malus X domestica L. Borkh) is one of the most widely grown and cultivated fruit crops in temperate regions. The economic success of this species notably relies on its highly appreciated fruit quality and its exceptional storability, which ensures a year-round availability of fresh fruit, guaranteeing therefore a continuous source of antioxidant compounds crucial for human health promotion and chronic diseases
prevention.
Over the past two decades, particularly since the release of the first genome drafted in 2010, significant research efforts have focused on elucidating the regulatory physiological pathways governing apple fruit quality, yield, and resistance to pathogens. Recent important works have already identified key gene networks and genetic loci with the potential to enhance fruit quality through breeding programs. Recent advancements in genome editing technologies offer moreover new frontiers for precisely modulating the ripening process, fostering plant growth, and reducing post-harvest losses.
Despite the efforts to increase agricultural production to meet the demands of a growing global population, climate change-related factors such as spring frost, drought, flooding, reduction of cold winters, and the emergence of new pathogens contribute to significant losses in fresh fruit production. This highlights the urgent
need to deepen our understanding of apple physiology, biology, and genetics, spanning both on-tree development, and post-harvest handling, to preserve fruit quality and ensure food security. The exploitation of the genetic diversity in crop wild relatives, such as M. sieversii and M. sylvestris, which gave rise to domesticated apples, can hold the potentiality to uncover novel traits for the introgression of
resistance and resilience features into novel ideotypes through breeding programs, and thereby fortifying the apple’s ability to withstand environmental stressors ad sustainably.
This Research Topic aims to gather the latest research articles, reviews, short notes, and opinions on apple biology and physiology, encompassing different disciplines, such as genetics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and gene editing. We welcome submissions that explore the application of these technologies and others, focusing
on topics related to fruit ripening, responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, hormonal crosstalk, phylogenetics, quantitative genetics, epigenetics, and more. Manuscripts should be supported by robust and extensive molecular data.
We invite contributions from scientists engaged in multidisciplinary investigations of apples, whose findings will contribute to the development of next-generation apple cultivars.
prevention.
Over the past two decades, particularly since the release of the first genome drafted in 2010, significant research efforts have focused on elucidating the regulatory physiological pathways governing apple fruit quality, yield, and resistance to pathogens. Recent important works have already identified key gene networks and genetic loci with the potential to enhance fruit quality through breeding programs. Recent advancements in genome editing technologies offer moreover new frontiers for precisely modulating the ripening process, fostering plant growth, and reducing post-harvest losses.
Despite the efforts to increase agricultural production to meet the demands of a growing global population, climate change-related factors such as spring frost, drought, flooding, reduction of cold winters, and the emergence of new pathogens contribute to significant losses in fresh fruit production. This highlights the urgent
need to deepen our understanding of apple physiology, biology, and genetics, spanning both on-tree development, and post-harvest handling, to preserve fruit quality and ensure food security. The exploitation of the genetic diversity in crop wild relatives, such as M. sieversii and M. sylvestris, which gave rise to domesticated apples, can hold the potentiality to uncover novel traits for the introgression of
resistance and resilience features into novel ideotypes through breeding programs, and thereby fortifying the apple’s ability to withstand environmental stressors ad sustainably.
This Research Topic aims to gather the latest research articles, reviews, short notes, and opinions on apple biology and physiology, encompassing different disciplines, such as genetics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and gene editing. We welcome submissions that explore the application of these technologies and others, focusing
on topics related to fruit ripening, responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, hormonal crosstalk, phylogenetics, quantitative genetics, epigenetics, and more. Manuscripts should be supported by robust and extensive molecular data.
We invite contributions from scientists engaged in multidisciplinary investigations of apples, whose findings will contribute to the development of next-generation apple cultivars.
Keywords: Malus domestica, apple, fruit, physiology, genetic, transcriptomics, metabolomics, ripening, biotic stress, abiotic stress.
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.
