From Genes to Forests: Omics Based Approaches for Tree Protection and Climate Adaptation

Forest ecosystems are among the most critical components of the global carbon cycle, biodiversity reservoirs, and providers of ecosystem services. Yet they face unprecedented threats from climate change, including prolonged drought, extreme temperature events, shifting pest and pathogen distributions, and increased wildfire frequency. Traditional silvicultural and breeding approaches, while valuable, are often too slow or too limited in genetic scope to keep pace with the rate of environmental change.Recent advances in molecular biology offer a transformative suite of tools to accelerate our understanding of tree stress responses and to develop practical strategies for forest protection and restoration. These include, but are not limited to, genomics and transcriptomics of stress adaptation, epigenomic regulation of phenotypic plasticity, CRISPR-based functional genomics, molecular marker-assisted selection, metatranscriptomics of tree-microbiome interactions, and metabolomics of defensive compounds.This Research Topic invites contributions that apply molecular approaches from foundational mechanistic studies to applied breeding and biotechnology to address the challenges facing forest trees under climate change. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and perspectives covering a wide range of tree species, from boreal conifers to tropical hardwoods, and from model systems to non-model species increasingly accessible through long-read sequencing technologies.By bringing together researchers across genomics, physiology, pathology, ecology, entomology, and forest management, this collection aims to synthesize current knowledge and chart priorities for the molecular protection of forests in the 21st century. Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:• Genomics and transcriptomics of drought, heat, frost, and waterlogging tolerance in forest trees• Epigenomic mechanisms underlying stress memory and phenotypic plasticity• CRISPR/Cas or gene-editing tools for functional characterization of stress-response genes• Population genomics and local adaptation across climate gradients• Molecular marker-assisted breeding and genomic selection for climate-resilient tree varieties• Tree–microbiome interactions under stress: metagenomics and metatranscriptomics approaches• Pathogen and pest resistance: molecular bases and biotechnological strategies• Metabolomics and proteomics of tree defensive responses• Long-read and single-cell sequencing applied to complex conifer and hardwood genomes• Comparative genomics of resilience traits across phylogenetically diverse forest species• Regulatory and ethical frameworks for deploying genetically informed or genome-edited trees in forests Topic editors: Vivek Vikram Singh, Jayendra Nath Shukla, Kanakachari Mogilicherla Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80581/from-genes-to-forests-omics-based-approaches-for-tree-protection-and-climate-adaptation