Epigenetic Mechanisms in Crop Response to Diverse Pathogens
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2026 | Viewed by 91
Special Issue Editors
Interests: plant epigenetics; genomics; DNA methylation; small RNA; disease resistance
Interests: plant–microbiome interaction; biological control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Crop productivity and security are severely challenged by various plant diseases, that are caused by bacteria, fungi, oomycetes, and viruses, as well as insects. Epigenetic variations can induce heritable changes in gene expression without altering DNA sequences, providing crucial insights into phenotypic plasticity beyond genetic variation. Notably, transcriptional reprogramming during plant–pathogen/pest interactions is often accompanied by dynamic alterations in genome-wide epigenetic modifications, highlighting the central role of epigenetic mechanisms in immune regulation. This Special Issue welcomes all the original research articles, high-quality reviews, and perspectives addressing epigenetic regulation of crop immunity and defense against pathogens and pests, from molecular mechanisms to translational strategies for enhancing crop disease resistance. This includes the following:
- The functional roles of epigenetic regulators in a crop’s response to pathogens.
- Epigenomic landscapes during a crop’s response to pathogens.
- Epigenetic tools used in crop disease control or resistance breeding.
- Comprehensive reviews of epigenetic mechanisms in plant immunity.
Dr. Peng Tian
Dr. Mingming Yang
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Agronomy 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 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.
Keywords
- crop
- plant disease
- immune regulation
- epigenetic regulators
- DNA methylation
- small RNA
- lncRNA
- histone modification
- chromatin accessibility
- RNA modification
- gene expression
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