Signaling during Plant-Microbe Symbioses

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to cordially invite you to contribute research/review articles highlighting advances in the field of plant–microbe symbiotic signaling.

The majority of land plants associate with variety of different mycorrhizal fungi to meet their nutrient demands. In addition, the mycorrhizal network acts as an extended root system for plants in the uptake of water and nutrients that are not otherwise readily available to the roots. The mycorrhizal association provides many other benefits to the crops, including protection from soil-borne plant pathogens; tolerance to abiotic stresses, such as drought and salinity; and the activation of plant defense signaling pathways conferring resistance to a wide range of plant pathogens. In addition, legumes have the unique ability to establish a mutualistic association with rhizobia, which results in the formation of root nodules where 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 via a signal exchange 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. Although unique, the actinorhizal symbiosis shares many commonalities with legume–rhizobia symbiosis, as they both share key players in a common signal transduction pathway. While the most efficient processes for biological nitrogen fixation occur in symbioses between rhizobia and legumes, as well as Frankia and actinorhizal plants, less efficient yet simpler processes referred to as associative nitrogen fixation have arisen in plant evolution, which may serve as tractable candidates for contemporary bioengineering. These simpler symbioses have the potential to be developed as new model systems using 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 advances in our understanding of signaling during plant–microbe symbioses, such as arbuscular mycorrhization, ectomycorrhization, ericoid mycorrhization, legume nodulation, and actinorhizal symbiosis. The submission of manuscripts on studies that utilize biochemical, genetic, pharmacological, and genomic approaches to further our knowledge of plant–microbe symbioses and reviews that discuss the scope of transferring the legume–rhizobia symbiotic signaling to non-legumes are strongly encouraged. All types of articles, original research, opinions, and reviews that provide new insights into plant–microbe symbioses and the interplay between plant–microbe symbiotic and defense signaling are also 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
• arbuscular mycorrhization
• ectomycorrhization
• ericoid mycorrhization
• legume nodulation
• actinorhizal symbiosis
• biological nitrogen fixation
• plant–microbe symbiotic signaling
• interplay between symbiotic and defense signaling