Il Dott. Paolo Boccacci, della Sede di Torino, è il guest editor di uno Special Issue dal titolo “Biodiversity of Minor Fruit Species“, che sarà pubblicato sulla rivista “Applied Sciences” di MDPI (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/Minor_Fruit_Species).
The increasing interest in alternative crop species throughout the world is attributed to the growing trend within agriculture to identify new old potential uses. This interest stems from various factors, contributing to agricultural diversification, better use of marginal land, and changing environments, besides their economic potential and the opportunities they provide for diet diversification. Furthermore, many minor species are nutritionally rich and well adapted to low input agriculture. Moreover, these species represent an interesting source of genes for resistance to stress and various diseases that can be transferred through the development of resistance breeding program. Authors are invited to this special issue on the biodiversity of minor fruit species to contribute with their results in the evaluation and valorization of the biodiversity of new old species of minor fruit cultivated across the world using techniques in molecular breeding, marker development, transcriptomics, markers assisted selection and comparative genomics (including or not “major” fruit crops).