Extreme temperatures or availability of water and nutrients represent critical challenges for maintaining crop productivity, and with the accelerating impact of climate change, these abiotic stresses are increasingly detrimental to agriculture. To combat this, it is essential to enhance crop resilience by understanding the physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms governing plant response to environmental constraints. In recent years, high-quality research exploring molecular signalling, oxidative stress, and antioxidant defence, was integrated with ‘omics’ strategies for understanding stress tolerance in crops. Cornerstone discoveries resulted from the studies of gene regulation under single/multi-stress tolerance, and innovative strategies based on ‘New Genomic Techniques’ and Artificial Intelligence are expected to improve our capacity in stress mitigation. Contributions leveraging wild species and genetic resources for developing resistant varieties are also expected. Time will therefore reveal whether we are witnessing a new green and sustainable knowledge revolution in agriculture to face the impellent climate change.

Collection Editors
Dr Mohd. Kamran Khan (Selcuk University, Turkey)
Dr Enrico Francia (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy)