Dear Colleagues,

A central element of the Green Deal is the need to shift to a more sustainable agriculture that reduces the environmental footprint of farming while maintaining efficient productive, social, eco-friendly, healthy, and cost-effective agriculture. Unfortunately, the protection of crops and trees is still mainly provided today through the extensive use of synthetic pesticides and chemical agents. These have proven their protective effectiveness but at the cost of negative consequences on the environment and human health. Finding alternative and/or complementary solutions should allow agriculture to cross a threshold in terms of innovation and competitiveness. This is a large-scale challenge that requires the use of a wide variety of solutions; among these solutions, biocontrol is one of the most promising paths. Beyond the development, dissemination, and adoption of biocontrol products and agents, biocontrol must fit into culture crop management systems that are less dependent on synthetic pesticides.

The molecular signals that occur between plants and 'friendly' and 'hostile' microbes initiate a series of sophisticated plant cellular responses. These events can be decisive for pathogen detection and the activation of suitable defense transduction pathways in the plant.  

To cover some aspects of plant–microbe interactions, and to achieve an efficient protective program, the current topic will focus on understanding the following: why do certain microbes only infect specific plants—is it because they do not possess the weaponry required to infect the other plants, or because these plants are armed with a better defense system to prevent pathogen assaults? How do plants interface with beneficial micro-organisms or their derivatives?

For this Special Issue, we welcome submissions on the plant–microbe interaction to foster an understanding on the biocontrol mechanisms on the plant host by increasing the insight into the molecular, physiological, and biochemical mechanisms involved in the tripartite interactions between beneficial microbes and their derivatives, pathogens, and plants under climate change mitigation.

Based on the above, we highly encourage experts and researchers to contribute with original scientific articles, reviews, and communications addressing the following topics:

• Plant–microbe interactions
• Chemical controls and integrated control strategies
• Biological control: screening, mechanisms of action, formulation, and field applications
• The impact of microbe-derived elicitors (exogenous elicitor)
• Pathogenesis mechanisms and plant immunity
• Gene regulation and genomic regulatory analysis
• Metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics analysis
• Signal transduction during the induction of acquired resistance (immunity) in plants
• Sustainable agriculture

Prof. Dr. Essaid Ait Barka
Dr. Cédric Jacquard
Prof. Dr. Christophe Clément
Guest Editors

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