Safety of Genetically Modified Crops and Plant Functional Genomics

Dear Colleagues,

Since GM crops began to be grown commercially in 1996, remarkable economic and social benefits have been achieved. In recent years, the development and approval of GM crops and plants have significantly increased, and the crops have been released for commercial cultivation across the globe. This phenomenon is also associated with developments in genetic modification techniques such as genome editing, CRISPR, transcription-activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN), zinc-finger nucleases (ZNFs), RNA-directed DNA methylation, cisgenesis and intragenesis, RNA-editing, and gene transfer via gene gun or agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Currently, there is also a debate about the safety of GM plants.

For this Special Issue, we invite researchers to submit articles, reviews, opinions, and short communications, including functional genomics tools and approaches being developed and deployed to provide new options for advancing the breeding of next-generation crops. Studies that involve the development, risk assessment, and regulation of GM plants.

Dr. Xinwu Pei
Dr. Lu Gan
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.

• genetically modified plants
• GM regulation
• GM risk assessment
• functional genomics
• genetic improvement