Molecular Mechanisms and Approaches in Plant-Microbe Interactions and Disease Control

Dear Colleagues,

Plant diseases caused by fungal, bacterial, viral, nematode, and oomycete pathogens are a major threat to crop yield and quality worldwide. Due to the arms race between pathogen infection and plant disease resistance strategies, continuous efforts must be made to enhance disease control in agricultural practice; for this, a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms of plant–pathogen interactions is necessary. On the other hand, plant interactions with beneficial microbes may promote their growth and nutrient uptake. This Special Issue is devoted to recent advances in plant-microbe interactions and disease resistance at molecular, genomic, and microbiome levels, and cutting-edge approaches for plant disease control. All relevant molecular and genomic research topics are welcome, including but not limited to plant resistance gene identification and functional analysis, the molecular basis of biological control agent mechanisms, soil, leaf, and other plant microbiomes involved in plant growth, nutrient utilization, and pathogen control, effectors and their host targets, plant receptors for triggering resistance, pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), plant pathways related to PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI), crop genetic engineering and genome editing techniques for improving disease resistance, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping of plant genome loci contributing to disease resistance. We welcome original research and review articles targeting model plant and microbial species as well as popular crops, plant growth-promoting microbes, and important pathogens causing devastating damage.

Dr. Ying Zhai
Dr. Chuntao Yin
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. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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.

• bacterium
• biological control
• fungus
• molecular plant-pathogen interactions
• oomycete
• plant disease control
• plant growth-promoting microbes
• plant nutrient utilization
• plant resistance genes
• virus