Submission to first decision
47 days

Molecular Breeding is an international journal publishing papers on applications of plant molecular biology, i.e., research most likely leading to practical applications. The practical applications might relate to the Developing as well as the industrialised World and have demonstrable benefits for the seed industry, farmers, processing industry, the environment and the consumer.

All papers published should contribute to the understanding and progress of modern plant breeding, encompassing the scientific disciplines of molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, physiology, pathology, plant breeding, and ecology among others. 

Molecular Breeding welcomes the following categories of papers: full papers, short communications, papers describing novel methods and review papers. All submission will be subject to peer review ensuring the highest possible scientific quality standards. 

Molecular Breeding core areas:
Molecular Breeding will consider manuscripts describing contemporary methods of molecular genetics and genomic analysis, structural and functional genomics in crops, proteomics and metabolic profiling, abiotic stress and field evaluation of transgenic crops containing particular traits. Manuscripts on marker assisted breeding are also of major interest, in particular novel approaches and new results of marker assisted breeding, QTL cloning, integration of conventional and marker assisted breeding, and QTL studies in crop plants. In considering QTL papers for the journal, the editors will favour reports of QTL governing important traits that have at least some of the following characteristics:
At least some called QTL with high LOD scores (>5); As full analysis as possible with available software; Dense marker coverage, taking into account the population size, with appropriate phenotypic analysis; Larger populations with replication of phenotyping, taking into account the crop species and the actual phenotype; The production of immortal lines (RILs, NILs, DHs etc) that will enable further work ; Clear discussion of the statistical significance of the called QTL; Independent testing of the QTL (analysis of different crosses, response to marker selection). 
Manuscripts on germplasm characterization will be considered only if describing the use of new strategies or marker systems
Manuscripts submitted to Molecular Breeding will focus on applications but we will also accept fundamental science papers as long as they are of direct relevance to crop plants and not model systems. Molecular Breeding also welcomes relevant articles addressing intellectual property issues, regulation and public attitudes to plant biotechnology and also significant technology advances in applied plant molecular biology and (trans)gene expression technology.

Editor-in-Chief:
Qifa Zhang
Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
qifazh@mail.hzau.edu.cn 

Managing Editors:

Yibo Li
Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
liyibo@mail.hzau.edu.cn 

Liang Guo
Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
guoliang@mail.hzau.edu.cn
Editorial Board:

Ian Bancroft, University of York, UK; 
Amalia Barone, University of Naples, Portici, Italy; 
Jacqueline Batley, University of Western Australia, Australia; 
Guusje Bonnema, Wageningen University, The Netherlands; 
Feng Chen, Henan Agricultural University, China; 
Guanqun (Gavin) Chen, University of Alberta, Canada; 
Feng Cheng, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, China; 
Paul Christou, Universitat de Lleida, Spain;
Fei Dai, Zhejiang University, China;
Xingwang Deng, Peking University, China;
Elisabetta Frascaroli, University of Bologna, Italy;
Andreas Graner, Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany; 
Sun-Wha Ha, Kyung Hee University, China;
Andrea Harper, University of York, USA;
Zhonghu He, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, China;
Xuehui Huang, Shanghai Normal University, China; 
David Hyten, University of Nebraska, USA;
Takao Komatsuda, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Japan; 
Fanjiang Kong, Guangzhou University, China; 
Viktor Korzun, KWS SAAT SE, Einbeck, Germany; 
Jochen Kumlehn, IPK Gatersleben, Germany; 
E. Lagudah,CSIRO,Canberra, Australia; 
S.-H. Lee, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea; 
Chengdao Li, Murdoch University, Australia;
L. Li, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA;
Qiaoquan Liu, Yangzhou University, China; 
Jianxin Ma, Purdue University, USA;
Wujun Ma, Murdoch University, Australia; 
Marco Maccaferri, DipSA, Bologna, Italy; 
Annaliese Mason, JLU Giessen, Germany;
Sara Montanari, University of California, Davis, CA, USA; 
A. Pereira, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Blacksburg, USA; 
Feng Qin, China Agriculturel University, China; 
J. Antoni Rafalski, DuPont Crop Genetics, Newark, DE, USA; 
S. Salvi, IASMA, Trento, Italy; 
D.J. Sargent, Fondazioni Edmund Mach, San Michele all'Adige, Italy; 
Takuji Sasaki, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Japan; 
Rod Snowdon, JLU Giessen, Germany;
Genlou Sun, Saint Mary's University, Canada; 
Feng Tian, China Agricultural University, China; 
Gregory N. Thyssen, USDA, USA;
Roberto Tuberosa, Biotechnology Applied Plant Breeding, Bologna, Italy; 
Yusaku Uga, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Japan; 
Rajeev Varshney, ICRISAT, India;
Richard Visser, Wageningen University, The Netherlands; 
Rod Wing, University of Arizona, USA;
Juyou Wu, Nanjing Agricultural University, China;
Jinhua Xiao, Hua-Zhi Rice Bio-tech Co., LTD, Changsha, Hunan, China; 
Qiang Xu, Huazhong Agricultural University, China; 
Jianming Yu, Iowa State University, USA; 
Zuxin Zhang, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China