Plant Genes and Salt Tolerance

Dear Colleagues,

Soil salinity is a serious worldwide problem that significantly affects crop production. The salinity problem can be solved using different agronomic practices; however, the use of salt-tolerant plants is the most efficient and cost-effective method. Therefore, the availability of salt-tolerant plant varieties is vital to relieve the agriculture sector and to augment the nutrition needed by the increasing world population. Various salinity tolerance mechanisms have previously been described in plants. However, other mechanisms are not yet deciphered, likely due to the lack of basic knowledge about particular physiological and cellular processes that control plant tolerance. Until now, protein-coding genes have been the major factors that derive tolerance to salinity in plants. However, the presence of a gene within a plant’s genome does not necessarily ensure tolerance because of the lack of a functional gene expression system or the presence of dominant salt-susceptible genes in the cell. Therefore, other genetic and epigenetic factors, such as DNA methylation, small RNAs (sRNA), miRNA, and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) molecules may also play a critical role in salinity tolerance. In addition, recent studies have shown that the activity of some microbes significantly impacts various physiological processes in the host plant, including tolerance to salinity. The soil microbial–plant relationship may allow the discovery of other unknown mechanisms by which plants can tolerate salinity. However, intensive research is needed to clarify this relationship and determine the major players and their roles in the salinity tolerance mechanism, such as the role of the siderophore-producing bacteria. Therefore, this Special Issue invites scientists to submit original research and review manuscripts focused on deciphering plant salt tolerance mechanisms using genetic and epigenetics mapping, OMICS, and gene editing technologies.

Prof. Dr. Mahmoud W. Yaish
Prof. Dr. Sergey Shabala
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• salt-tolerant
• genetics
• epigenetics
• plant-microbe interaction
• PGPB