The Role of Protein Quality Control in Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Dear Colleagues,

Plants are constantly challenged with diverse environmental stresses that adversely affect growth and development. Abiotic stresses like drought, salt, high temperature, and flooding perturb protein homeostasis (also known as proteostasis) and cellular functionality by inducing protein misfolding and aggregation, as well as an elevated unfolded protein response. Mechanisms that effectively circumvent the imbalance in proteostasis are therefore crucial for plant survival under stress conditions. Much attention in the field of plant abiotic stress tolerance has focused on understanding molecular mechanisms underlying intracellular signaling, transcriptional regulation, and epigenetic reprogramming, but recent discoveries have revealed the importance of protein quality control (PQC) for stress responses. For example, increasing evidence indicates that PQC involving molecular chaperones and proteolytic pathways such as autophagy and ubiquitin 26S-proteasome (UPS)-mediated protein degradation play crucial roles in stress responses, both at the cellular and whole-plant levels.

This Special Issue aims to establish a wide collection of articles (research articles, reviews, opinions, methodologies, hypotheses, and modelling approaches) that emphasize identifying and unraveling the mechanisms of proteostasis involved in plant responses to various abiotic stress challenges. We would be delighted to receive contributions that decipher the process by analysis and integration of different -omics layers and the functional characterization of components involved in plant stress responses regulated by PQC. Additionally, articles addressing the proteolytic mechanisms in crops are highly welcome for this Issue.

Scope and information to the authors:

This Research Topic aims to provide a framework for addressing underexplored and relevant questions in relation to plant abiotic stress signaling and response in plants. We invite contributions that cover topics including, but not restricted to, those listed below.

Under plant response to abiotic stress:

• Role of cellular and organellar PQC pathways;
• Transcriptional/translation regulation of PQC pathways;
• Small-molecule control of PQC;
• Role of biological condensates for PQC;
• Proteolytic mechanisms (in crops).

Dr. Venkatesh Thirumalaikumar
Prof. Dr. Salma Balazadeh
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.

• abiotic stress
• plant growth
• yield
• protein quality control
• stress response
• autophagy
• ubiquitin–proteasome system
• transcriptional regulation