Biochemical Defenses of Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Plants are often referred to as ‘nature’s chemists’ since they collectively biosynthesize hundreds of thousands of specialized metabolites. Plant-specialized metabolites have direct economic value as pharmaceuticals, food additives, and other industrial uses, yet they have a prominent role in defending plants, including major crop species, against important agricultural pests and pathogens. These include pathogenic bacteria, fungi, oomycetes, phytoplasma, viruses, viroids, other plant species, and macro- and microscopic animals such as insects and nematodes. Thus, understanding the biochemical defences of plants, including their biochemical diversity, biosynthesis, degradation, complex signalling, and regulatory networks, and their roles in mediating interactions with other organisms, will inform genetic engineering or breeding strategies to enhance their production to support sustainable agriculture and the supply of plant-derived small-molecule-type pharmaceuticals.

This Special Issue of Plants will highlight all novel aspects of the biochemical defences of plants at the genetic, molecular, biochemical, cellular, organismal, and ecological levels. Scientists from all over the world are invited to submit original research and review articles on topics related to the biochemical defences of plants.

Dr. Nik Kovinich
Prof. Dr. Philippe Jeandet
Dr. Clive Lo
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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.