Plant Flowering, Fruit Setting and Quality Induced by Stress

Under natural and agricultural production conditions, plants often suffer from abiotic stresses such as drought, high temperature, low temperature, saline-alkaline, nutritional stress, and biological stresses such as pests and diseases. The traditional view is that stress can inhibit plant growth and reproductive development, but studies have shown that specific stress conditions can induce early flowering (stress-induced flowering), and have complex and significant effects on fruit set rate, fruit development and final quality (such as sugar-to-acid ratio, color, aroma, nutrient content, etc.). This phenomenon involves hormone signal regulation (such as abscisic acid, gibberellin, ethylene, etc.), the expression of flowering genes (such as FT, SOC1, etc.), carbon and nitrogen metabolism crosstalk and reprogramming, source–sink relationship changes, and other multi-level physiological mechanisms.

In-depth analysis of the physiological basis of stress-induced flowering and fruit set and quality is of great significance for coping with climate change, optimizing the cultivation and management of fruit trees and horticultural crops, and improving crop yield and fruit quality under stress.

This Research Topic aims to study the effects of various stresses on induced or accelerated flowering, improved fruit set and quality in plants, particularly crops. In the long term, understanding the physiological, molecular, and genetic mechanisms of this developmental stage will be crucial for applying stress treatments to flowering induction, improving fruit set and quality, and will provide new insights into understanding of the complex mechanisms of stress transduction networks.

We welcome submissions of various article types, including but not limited to original research articles, methods, reviews, mini-reviews, and perspectives. The Research Topic includes research on the following sub-themes but is not limited to:

• The signal perception and transduction mechanisms of stress-induced flowering: including hormone interactions, transcriptional regulatory networks, and the regulatory effects of epigenetic modifications on flowering transition.
• The effects of stress conditions on flower organ differentiation and development: how stress changes the initiation of flower primordium, the number and morphology of flower organs, anther fertility and ovule viability.
• Physiological bottlenecks of fruit set and early fruit development under stress: pollen viability, pollination and fertilization efficiency, ovary enlargement and stress response mechanism of early fruit setting.
• The physiological and molecular basis of the regulation of fruit quality by stress: the stress response changes of metabolites such as sugar, acid, pigment, aroma, vitamin content, and the correlation with maturation regulatory factors.
• Stress memory and intergenerational effects: the epigenetic transmission of parental stress experience to the flowering habits and fruit quality of offspring.
• Cultivation regulation and stress management strategies: the technical methods and physiological principles of inducing flowering and improving quality under moderate stress (such as water and temperature control).
• New methods, new models and reviews: including high-throughput phenotypic analysis, multi-omics, system modeling, and reviews and prospects in this field.

Article types and fees

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

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

Keywords: Plants, Stress-Induced Flowering, Fruit Setting and Quality, Metabolism, Gene Expression, Signaling, Regulation, Source Sink

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.