Uncovering Roles of Fungal Toxins and Specialized Metabolites in Plant Infection
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Pest and Disease Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Fungal pathogens―particularly Fusarium graminearum, Ustilago maydis, and Magnaporthe oryzae―are responsible for extensive yield losses in staple crops such as wheat, maize, and rice, respectively. Beyond their well-known pathogenic potential, these fungi produce a vast repertoire of specialized metabolites, including mycotoxins, pigments, and low-molecular-weight effectors, which play crucial roles in virulence, host specificity, and environmental adaptation.
Recent research has revealed that these metabolites are not merely toxic by-products of fungal metabolism but act as key mediators of plant–pathogen communication. They influence infection processes by facilitating host penetration and colonization, suppress host immune responses through interference with defense signaling pathways, inhibit the infection niche by eliminating competing microorganisms, and ultimately reshape plant–microbe interactions within infected tissues. Meanwhile, the regulation of fungal secondary metabolism is strongly influenced by environmental cues, crop management practices, and the plant-associated microbiome. This context-dependent regulation highlights specialized metabolism as a flexible adaptive strategy that enables fungal pathogens to optimize infection success under diverse agricultural and ecological settings.
The integration of modern omics technologies—such as genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics—together with advances in genome mining, has opened new avenues for uncovering the molecular basis of fungal pathogenicity and secondary metabolism.
This Special Issue aims to bring together cutting-edge research on the biochemical, molecular, and ecological dimensions of fungal toxins and specialized metabolites. It will serve as a platform to explore how these compounds shape disease development, plant defense, and agroecosystem health. By consolidating new insights, this collection will contribute to sustainable disease management and food safety strategies.
We welcome original research articles, reviews, and short communications focusing on the following:
- Biosynthesis and regulation of fungal toxins and metabolites;
- Molecular mechanisms linking secondary metabolism and virulence;
- Functional genomics of toxin biosynthetic gene clusters;
- Host and environmental factors influencing metabolite production;
- Roles of the plant microbiome in modulating fungal metabolite activity;
- Innovative strategies to mitigate fungal mycotoxin contamination in crops.
Dr. Tran Minh Trang
Guest Editor
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
- toxins
- virulence
- effectors
- specialized metabolites
- fungal pathogen
- mycotoxins
- plant–microbe interaction
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