Genetics and Epigenetics: Plausible Role in Development of Climate Resilient Crops

The changes in temperature, precipitation, and atmospheric CO2 concentration due to global climate change significantly affect crop production. Recent studies showed that each degree-Celsius increase in global mean temperature would, on average, reduce global yields of wheat by 6.0%, rice by 3.2%, maize by 7.4%, and soybean by 3.1%. Several studies in the model plant Arabidopsis reveal that plants have developed genetic and epigenetic mechanisms to cope with single or combined abiotic stresses. Despite this, the role of genetic and epigenetic variation in the adaptation of crops to abiotic stress is still not well explored. Scientists and breeders will have to pay more attention to crop epialleles, transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, and their promising role in adaptation to environmental changes. Therefore, understanding and exploiting the genetics and epigenetics of crop plants will help us to deal with global climate changes and the development of climate-resilient crops.

This Research Topic aims to collect high-quality research contributions related to genetic and epigenetic regulation of abiotic stresses in crop plants so that it could be utilized in future breeding and genome editing programs to overcome the threat to food production. We invite manuscripts, including Original Research and Reviews, dealing with all aspects of research on genetics and epigenetics, including quantitative genetics (QTL, GWAS, epiGWAS, and genomic selection), molecular breeding, functional genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and genome editing.