In recent years, sustainability is becoming a major goal of horticulture. This involves acting on environmental conditions, good agricultural practices (GAP), conservation of biodiversity and innovative plant breeding approaches. The objective of sustainable horticulture is to provide safe and quality food while preserving the environment, as well as genetic resources as an important reservoir of characters and nutraceutical properties. Several strategies can be used to increase the sustainability in horticulture, such as promoting low inputs management techniques aimed at preserving soil fertility, optimizing water and nitrogen usage, lowering pollution levels in farming, and using varieties adapted to specific environmental conditions and agronomic techniques. The availability of genetic resources with unique organoleptic and functional characteristics and cultivated with sustainable agricultural systems, meets the interest of consumers, and represents a unique resource to boost the rural economy is limited. Omic sciences such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and phenomics represent important approaches to speed up the breeding of important agronomic traits such as yield, resistance, and quality. New plant breeding techniques (NPBT) have been developed to introduce precise genome modification of several plant species. These new precise breeding strategies, although under discussion concerning their regulation in European countries, allow introducing and deeply studying important traits related to biotic and abiotic stress, plant growth and yield, produce quality, providing great benefit in crop improvement also under the sustainability point of view. An update on Omic sciences and NPBT strategies in sustainable horticulture could be of great interest to breeders and researchers.
In this Research Topic, we welcome all articled types published by Frontiers in Plant Science that contribute to the following subtopics:
• Genomics of Plant Genetic Resources: articles describing how genomics improves crop productivity, healthier products and provide consumers with high-quality food
• Plant Metabolomics: articles describing how metabolomics allows to study new metabolic pathways and to ascertain food health and quality of products obtained under different environmental conditions aimed at sustainability or derived from NPBT approaches.
• NPBTs: articles describing the most recent results using the NPBT for crop improvement highlighting the great potential of these techniques in the sustainable horticulture scenario.
In recent years, sustainability is becoming a major goal of horticulture. This involves acting on environmental conditions, good agricultural practices (GAP), conservation of biodiversity and innovative plant breeding approaches. The objective of sustainable horticulture is to provide safe and quality food while preserving the environment, as well as genetic resources as an important reservoir of characters and nutraceutical properties. Several strategies can be used to increase the sustainability in horticulture, such as promoting low inputs management techniques aimed at preserving soil fertility, optimizing water and nitrogen usage, lowering pollution levels in farming, and using varieties adapted to specific environmental conditions and agronomic techniques. The availability of genetic resources with unique organoleptic and functional characteristics and cultivated with sustainable agricultural systems, meets the interest of consumers, and represents a unique resource to boost the rural economy is limited. Omic sciences such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and phenomics represent important approaches to speed up the breeding of important agronomic traits such as yield, resistance, and quality. New plant breeding techniques (NPBT) have been developed to introduce precise genome modification of several plant species. These new precise breeding strategies, although under discussion concerning their regulation in European countries, allow introducing and deeply studying important traits related to biotic and abiotic stress, plant growth and yield, produce quality, providing great benefit in crop improvement also under the sustainability point of view. An update on Omic sciences and NPBT strategies in sustainable horticulture could be of great interest to breeders and researchers.
In this Research Topic, we welcome all articled types published by Frontiers in Plant Science that contribute to the following subtopics:
• Genomics of Plant Genetic Resources: articles describing how genomics improves crop productivity, healthier products and provide consumers with high-quality food
• Plant Metabolomics: articles describing how metabolomics allows to study new metabolic pathways and to ascertain food health and quality of products obtained under different environmental conditions aimed at sustainability or derived from NPBT approaches.
• NPBTs: articles describing the most recent results using the NPBT for crop improvement highlighting the great potential of these techniques in the sustainable horticulture scenario.
