Soil and Plant Microbiomes

Dear Colleagues,

Soil microorganisms contribute to the decomposition, recycling and storage of nutrients, supporting plant growth and health, improving soil fertility in general, as living components of bulk soil, and, specifically, colonizing the rhizosphere, where they can affect plant activities, such as growth, survival, mineral nutrition, and water usage. In turn, rhizosphere microbial composition, richness, and function are influenced by plant species and rhizodeposition. Among useful soil microorganisms, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria are very promising to support sustainable agriculture. Additionally, the areal parts of the plants, namely phyllosphere and carposphere, are colonized by microorganisms that may have a positive influence on plants by protecting them against pathogens or promoting their growth by altering plant surface properties, enhancing nitrogen fixation and the degradation of organic pollutants.

This Special Issue will publish papers focusing on all aspects of the topics above introduced, with particular interests towards: (i) microbial diversity (richness, evenness and composition) as a function of agronomic practices, plant species, environmental conditions; (ii) the relationship between microbial diversity and function; (iii) how microorganisms affect soil fertility and plant growth and metabolism; (iv) the isolation and characterization of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and their use as biofertilizers. A particular attention will be payed to the new frontiers in molecular biology investigating metagenomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics by tools as high throughput sequencing, quantitative PCR, arrays, and computational analysis.

Dr. Carmine Crecchio
Guest Editor

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. Microorganisms 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 2700 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.

• soil microbial communities
• phyllosphere and carposphere microbial communities
• microbial diversity and function
• metagenomics
• metabolomics
• transcriptomics
• soil fertility
• plant growth promoting rhizobacteria