Special Issue "Advances in Genetic and Molecular Mechanisms of Plants Stress Resistance"

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change threatens the survival of plant species and exacerbates the vulnerability of agricultural systems and food production globally. During the last two decades, there have been drastic changes in rainfall patterns, heat waves, episodes of floods and droughts, increased salinities in agricultural lands, and the proliferation of bacterial, viral, and fungal diseases in plant crops worldwide. Nevertheless, these challenges have offered new opportunities to develop agricultural technologies to support sustainable agricultural development and food production systems. Likewise, understanding genetic factors and their interactions at the whole plant level, as well as advances in the molecular mechanism and signaling cascades that actively participate in the adaptation, tolerance, or resistance process of plant crops toward abiotic and biotic stress, has provided crucial information to develop crop varieties with enhanced resistance towards stress, while maintaining a balanced productivity level. Emerging sequencing technologies and cutting-edge molecular tools have paved new paths toward revealing the interactions between genetic factors, signaling molecules, and transcriptional regulation at the whole genome level.

This Special Issue focuses on gathering recent advances in plant abiotic and biotic response mechanisms at the gene or protein level, including secondary metabolites, physiological processes, and biochemical reactions that explain variabilities in the phenotypes of plant crops or model plants. This issue also includes research articles or review papers discussing using conventional or modern breeding technologies for abiotic or biotic stress improvement in plants.

Dr. Nkulu Kabange Rolly
Dr. Bong-Gyu Mun
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• abiotic stress response
• biotic stress response mechanisms
• plant breeding
• transcriptomics
• genome sequencing
• genetic markers
• metabolomics
• phenomics
• redox homeostasis
• post transcriptional modification (PTM)