Plant-Aphid Interactions: From Genes to Ecosystems

Dear Colleagues,

Aphids (Aphididae) comprise more than 5000 extant species which have been evolving their relations with plants since the early Mesozoic era. As a result, they have developed sophisticated mouthpart structure, feeding habits and intricate mechanisms to cope with plant defenses. In parallel, aphids became the most successful vectors of plant viruses, which made them insects of great economic importance. Aphids and their associations with plants and other components of the biotic and abiotic environment have attracted a great deal lot of attention as scientific study objects. Although the hitherto published literature on aphids and the associated issues is enormous, there are still areas open for exploration. We would like to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Plants titled “Plant-aphid interactions: from genes to ecosystems”. In this Special Issue, we would like to include Aphididae and their closest relatives: Adelgidae and Phylloxeridae. We encourage submissions describing plant–aphid and aphid–plant relationships in broad ecological and evolutionary contexts. The scope of this Special Issue is to cover:

• Effects of aphids on plants: physiological and molecular aspects, including virus transmission.
• Effects of plants on aphids: constitutive and induced defenses, plant resistance to aphid infestation (antibiosis, antixenosis and tolerance), effects on aphid behavior.
• Aphids as elements of ecological webs—plants–aphids–parasitoids–predators; plants–aphids–ants; mycorrhizal fungi–plants–aphids; plant–plant interactions and their effect on aphids; etc.
• Aphids and plants and their abiotic environment, including climate change issues.
• Gall-forming aphids: morphology, physiology, effect on plants, ecological context.
• Especially welcome are descriptions of hitherto unknown aphid–plant associations.
• Aphids in the past: fossil evidence of plant–aphid associations.

We also welcome manuscripts discussing any other interesting subjects.

Dr. Beata Gabrys
Dr. Katarzyna Dancewicz
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. 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.

• plants, aphids and environment
• aphid evolution
• plant resistance to aphids
• aphid behavior
• plant response to aphids