Guest editors: Anna Backhaus (International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas, ICARDA, Morocco), Lydia Smith (National Institute of Agricultural Botany, NIAB, UK) and Katherine Baum (Australia Grains Genebank, Australia)

Grasses are a dominant feature of dryland ecosystems and play a vital role in natural rangelands as well as cultivated systems. However, through domestication, intensive breeding, unsuitable agronomic practices, and land degradation the number of grass species and cultivars grown in drylands has drastically decreased. Conservation, characterisation and utilisation of these important species is essential for future climate scenarios.

Plant Genetic Resources invites papers for a special issue on dryland grass species. We welcome contributions from studies that make significant scientific advances about dominant dryland grass species, Wheat, Barley, Sorghum and Millets and the lesser studied species such as Teff and Fonio. Manuscripts can include grass species used for human food as well as forage for nutritious animal feed in some of the harshest environments. We are especially interested in articles that advance understanding of conservation (whether in situ or ex situ), breeding important traits such as disease resistance, water use efficiency, and heat tolerance or that characterise grass biodiversity in dryland regions. Socio-economic studies on grass cultivation, preservation, environmental returns and use in dryland regions are also welcome.

We will consider full Research Articles, Short Communications and Critical Reviews (see Author Instructions here). If you wish to submit a manuscript, this will be subject to peer review in the usual manner for Plant Genetic Resources. To maximise impact and visibility of published articles, the special issue will be Open Access

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The Cambridge Open Equity Initiative (COEI) also funds Gold Open Access publishing of research articles for authors from over 100 low- and middle-income countries, covering over 5,000 institutions. Eligibility is automatically established during the publication process and no Gold Open Access fees will be charged if the corresponding author of a research article is based in one of these countries. In other cases an article processing charge (APC) will be required to cover the costs of publishing Gold Open Access in this journal.