Advances in Microbial Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last few decades, the rise in agricultural production has been based mainly on the heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The interest in biological control of phytopathogens has particularly increased over the last decade, especially because of the importance of using environmentally friendly alternatives to the extensive use of chemical pesticides for combating pest diseases. Extensive microbiome research in the field of structure and function of the plant microbiome, the pivotal role of plant-associated microbes on plant health and productivity, as well as the “state of the art” new methodologies nowadays, should increase our knowledge and provide a movement from laboratory data to practical applications in sustainable agriculture. Plant-associated microbial communities play key functions in biotic and abiotic stress tolerance as well as nutrient acquisition and carbon and nitrogen cycling. Overall, through numerous mechanisms, beneficial microbes, including antibiosis, toxin production, and nutrient sequestration, directly suppress the proliferation of pathogens and the symptoms of infections in plants. Biological control of plant diseases is not only an alternative to chemical pesticides, but it may also provide control of diseases that cannot be managed by other control strategies. On the other hand, plant growth promotion may come about through direct regulation of phytohormonal activity, increasing root surface area, increasing tolerance to plant diseases, rhizosphere engineering, siderophore production, phosphate solubilization, and the production of active chemical signals. These phenomena have been observed in plant–microbe interactions involving agriculturally important crops such as cereals and legumes. The idea of the now-how development of eco-friendly biopesticides and biofertilizers, and other agricultural biotechnologies, together with molecular studies on the resistance of plants to biotic and abiotic stress and the investigation of interkingdom signaling between plants and plant-associated bacteria, with special attention to emerging phytopathogens, will be the most characteristic activities and outcomes of this Special Issue.

Dr. Ivica Dimkić
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.

• plant–pathogen interaction
• biological control
• biofertilizers
• biopesticides
• interkingdom signaling between plants and plant-associated bacteria