Abiotic and Biotic Stress Factors Affecting Plant Growth and Productivity: At the Crossroads of Climate Change and Pathogen Adaptability

Climate change is one of the principal driving forces intensifying abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, flooding and extreme heat and cold temperatures. It also greatly influences biotic stresses by altering the plant-microbe interactions, including pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms. These combined abiotic and biotic stresses trigger coordinated physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses that negatively affect plant growth, development, and overall crop productivity. A timely solution in this direction would require the development of new plant germplasm and plant adaptation strategies to cope with these stresses while maintaining enhanced agronomic performance under field conditions.

The goal of this Research Topic is to promote the development of climate-resilient and pathogen-resistant crop varieties through an integrated understanding of plant responses at physiological, biochemical, and genomic levels. These strategies include assessment of wild germplasm with superior performance critical for acquiring a holistic understanding for crop improvement programs, developing new germplasm using conventional genetics and breeding tools, modern genetic engineering/gene editing to develop climate-adapted germplasms tolerant against abiotic and biotic stresses, and adopting innovative environmentally safe and sustainable agriculture-related strategies, such as the use of cover crops, biocontrol agents, and beneficial microbes to achieve greater crop stress resilience and improved field performance.

The Research Topic aims to compile recent advances in abiotic and biotic research at the interface of climate change and evolving pathogens that negatively impact crop growth, yield and productivity, thereby impacting nutritional benefits and food security globally. This topic welcomes the submission of research from following topics, including but not limited to:

1. Physiological, biochemical molecular, genomic, and multi-omics studies that strengthen current knowledge in the field of abiotic and biotic stress and lead to the identification of key components regulating stress-related traits.

2. Deciphering molecular genetics of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K) responses to develop nutrient-efficient germplasm.

3. Functional genomics studies revealing the role of a gene (or set of genes) or gene networks governing stress-related traits or pathways using gene editing and gene modification technologies.

4. Use of innovative sustainable agriculture strategies to improve plant yield in stress conditions in the field.

5. Integration of high-throughput phenotyping (e.g., hyperspectral imaging) and machine learning algorithms to accelerate the identification of stress-resilience traits and predict plant stress response dynamics.

6. Interdisciplinary studies addressing combined abiotic and biotic stress scenarios are particularly encouraged.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: abiotic, biotic, genomics, stress, plants, climate change, heat, drought, salinity, flood, pathogen

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.