Phytotoxic Activity of Metal-Based Contaminants

Dear Colleagues,

Increased anthropogenic activities, industrialization, and current agricultural practices have caused an increased presence of metal-based contaminants in the environment; in particular, those that are environmentally persistent and multitargeted have harmful effects on living organisms. Essential metals such as Cu, Fe, Ni, Mn, and Zn are required for physiological and biochemical processes in plants; nevertheless, when in excess, they may become toxic. On the other hand, non-essential metals such as Pb, Cd, and Hg are highly toxic even at low concentrations, inducing serious morphological, physiological, and metabolic alterations in crops. Both essential and non-essential metals are prone to inducing toxic effects on plants, affecting growth, photosynthesis, and nutrient assimilation, with a negative impact on crop productivity, quality, and, ultimately, food security. Moreover, these contaminants are assimilated and accumulated by plants with consequent contamination of the food chain and threats to human and animal health. Therefore, it is particularly important to understand the phytotoxic activity of metal contaminants as well as the mechanisms undertaken by plants to counteract their effects, mostly in tolerant species, in order to find new strategies for improving crops’ resilience to metals and to develop new approaches for metal phytoremediation.

This Special Issue aims to provide a concentrated venue to publish timely and relevant research on the field of metal phytotoxicity, paying particular attention to the major targets of metals in crops, the physiological, metabolic, and molecular mechanisms activated by crops to respond to metal toxicity, and the tolerance mechanisms that metallophyte species exhibit.

In this Special Issue, authors are invited to submit original research papers, reviews, and short communications.

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Concentration of metals and metalloid contaminants in terrestrial environments;
• Uptake, accumulation, and effects in plants species, especially in plant metabolism;
• Metal phytotoxic activity in tolerant versus sensitive plants;
• Unveiling of the metal tolerance mechanisms in plants;
• Strategies for metal phytotoxicity mitigation;
• Phytoremediation strategies.

Dr. Sónia Silva
Dr. Maria Celeste Dias
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. Toxics 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.

• phytotoxicity
• metal contaminants
• plant stress
• phytoremediation
• physiology
• metabolism