Plant Signaling during Legume-Rhizobia Symbiosis

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to cordially invite you to contribute research/review articles pertaining to legume–rhizobia symbiotic signaling.

As you are aware, legumes have the unique ability to establish a mutualistic association with rhizobia, which results in the formation of root nodules in which atmospheric nitrogen is reduced into assimilable forms and supplied to host plants. A high level of species specificity exists in rhizobia–legume interactions, which are initiated by signal exchanges between the two partners. The infection process and the development of root nodules require a set of highly coordinated events at the root epidermal and cortical cells. However, non-legumes (with a few exceptions) lack the ability to associate with diazotrophs in order to meet their nitrogen demands. While the most efficient processes for biological nitrogen fixation occur in symbioses between nitrogen-fixing rhizobial bacteria and plants in the Leguminosae family, less efficient yet simpler processes have arisen in plant evolution that may serve as tractable candidates to contemporary bioengineering. These more straightforward symbioses have the potential to be developed as new model systems by utilizing recent advancements in the fields of ‘omics’. Over the past two decades, elegant genetic, genomic and biochemical studies have been conducted on legume nodulation to decipher the intricacies of this unique plant–microbe association.

This Special Issue intends to highlight the recent progress in the elucidation of legume–rhizobia symbiotic signaling during the recognition of microbial symbionts, rhizobial infection, nodule organogenesis, biological nitrogen fixation, nitrogen assimilation and nodule senescence. We particularly encourage the submission of manuscripts that reflect studies on the utilization of biochemical, genetic, pharmacological and genomic approaches in order to further our knowledge in legume–rhizobia symbiosis, as well as reviews that discuss the scope of transferring the legume–rhizobia symbiotic signaling process to non-legumes. All forms of articles, original research, opinions, and reviews that provide new insights into legume–rhizobia symbiosis are welcome.

Dr. Muthu Venkateshwaran
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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.

• symbiosis
• legume nodulation
• biological nitrogen fixation
• symbiotic signaling
• calcium signaling
• calcium spiking