Genome-Enabled Analysis of Abiotic Stress Adaptation Mechanisms in Food and Feed Crops

Call for Papers

Improving crop plants for adaptation to various abiotic stresses such as drought, flooding, high salinity, and low temperature is one of the major challenges to food security in the 21st century. Past efforts to introduce genes conferring adaptation to such stresses into modern cultivars through traditional breeding and genetic engineering have led so far only to modest success. However, the rapid progress in genome sequencing promises new paradigms to dissect such complex mechanisms. The availability of genome sequences for the major crop plants like rice, maize, potato, and so forth, has enabled access to information on gene function, by probing into the complexities of the transcriptome, proteome, and epigenome. High-throughput DNA sequencing together with bioinformatics have greatly facilitated vigorous analyses of regulatory networks. Studies on small RNA molecules, chromatin modulation, and genomic DNA modification have additionally allowed us to understand the complex systems. Thus, functional genomics approaches would certainly provide the basis of effective production strategies for a greater stress adaptation to meet the demand of the growing population.

We invite original as well as review articles to deliver a range of advanced genomic approaches and breeding efforts that would lead to further advances in our understanding on the molecular mechanisms underlying abiotic stress adaptation in crop plants and their applications in genomics-enabled breeding and genetic engineering. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Functional genomic analyses of stress adaptation mechanisms at the level of the transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and epigenome
• Reconstruction of regulatory networks and identification of critical network hubs for stress adaptation engineering
• Functional analysis of quantitative trait loci (QTL)
• Studies on the evolution of stress response mechanisms in flowering plants
• Emerging transgenic strategies for stress adaptation engineering
• Utilization of exotic genomes for the discovery of novel stress adaptation mechanisms
• Integrating experimental and computational genomics with phenomics to understand abiotic stress adaptation mechanisms
• Systems-level approaches to understand abiotic stress adaptation

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ija/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ija/astm/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Bijayalaxmi Mohanty, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Guest Editors

• Benildo De Los Reyes, School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
• Dong-Yup Lee, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore
• Song Joong Yun, Department of Crop Science and Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea