Variations in temperature, precipitation, and atmospheric CO2 concentration due to global warming and climate change significantly affect crop production. For example, recent studies have shown that each degree Celsius increase in the global mean temperature would, on average, reduce global yields of wheat by 6.0%, rice by 3.2%, maize by 7.4%, and soybean by 3.1%. Thus, there is an urgent need to build climate resilience in crop varieties in order to reduce global food insecurity. Several innovative omics (multi-omics) approaches have been developed during the past few decades and could be explored to study the regulation of stress-responsive genes in crops.

However, despite the notable progress in high-throughput next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics, functional genomics, and the availability of big data, their utilization to identify various novel genes or stress regulators involved in abiotic stress regulation is still lagging in crop plants. Omics-based tools, such as genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, phenomics, and metabolomics could help us explore the molecular pathways and mechanisms driving crop development during various abiotic stress conditions. Furthermore, gaining insights through specific omics approaches will not be enough to address the research questions, whereas integrating these omics technologies could be an effective strategy to interpret the gene function, pathways, and regulatory networks underlying complex traits, such as abiotic stresses.

This Special Issue aims to collect high-quality research related to understanding crop biology using high-throughput -omics technologies during various abiotic stresses. We invite manuscripts, including original research and reviews, dealing with all aspects of the biology of abiotic stress regulation in crops utilizing multi-omics or integrated “omics” approaches. We also include research related to the implementation of quantitative genetics (QTL, GWAS, PWAS, epiGWAS, and genomic selection), molecular breeding, functional genomics, and genome editing to develop climate-resilient crop varieties.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Multi-omics based research to understand the biology of abiotic stress responses in crops
• Functional validation of identified novel stress-responsive genes/pathways
• Exploring genetic variations in crops for abiotic stress responses via omic approaches
• Quantitative genetics (QTL, GWAS, PWAS, epiGWAS,. and genomic selection) to develop climate-resilient crops
• Genetic engineering and genome editing