Mechanisms Involved in Sustainable Metabolism of Legume Plants under Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

Dear Colleagues,

To ensure and maintain food security in changing climatic conditions, and with the constantly growing human population, it is necessary to use crops that, on the one hand, are highly productive, and on the other hand, are resistant to/tolerant of various stresses. Legume plants are the second, after cereals, source of food most appreciated mainly for nutritional value—high protein content and favorable mineral composition. Moreover, they enrich soil in N, in an ecofriendly way, due to symbiosis with Rhizobium bacteria that fix free atmospheric N. Like other plants, during their lifetime, legumes are exposed to various biotic stresses (fungal and bacterial diseases, pests) and abiotic stresses (drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, water-lodging, high radiation intensity, mineral deficiency, heavy metals, etc.) which reduce the quantity and quality of crops.

Understanding the mechanisms that allow plants to be an effective defense against emerging stress while maintaining sufficient yield is one of the most important tasks for the better use of these plants. This Special Issue of Sustainability will focus on the novel aspects of stress tolerance mechanisms in legumes at various levels, ranging from morpho-anatomical, through physiological, proteomic and molecular. Scientists from around the world are invited to submit original papers and reviews that investigate grain and forage legumes, both those that are widely known and those of marginal importance.

Topics of desired scientific articles include, but are not limited to:

• functional and structural acclimatization of the photosynthetic apparatus to biotic and abiotic stresses;
• plant metabolism under biotic stress;
• changes in plant metabolic pathways under stress conditions and their effect on the production of secondary metabolites;
• symbiosis with Rhizobium bacteria under biotic and abiotic stresses.

Dr. Barbara Tokarz
Dr. Krzysztof M. Tokarz
Guest Editors

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• acclimatization
• antioxidant system
• cold
• drought
• Fabaceae
• fungal and bacterial diseases
• heavy metals
• high radiation intensity
• legumes
• mineral deficiency
• pests
• photosynthesis
• reactive oxygen species
• Rhizobium bacteria
• salinity
• secondary metabolites
• water-lodging