Plant–Fungus Interactions in Agronomic Systems
A Special Issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2026 | Viewed by 2349
Editor
Interests: fungal–plant interactions; bioremediation; metagenomics and biodiversity; discovery of efficient enzymes and proteins for sustainable biofuel production; biocontrol of pests and fungal-mediated plant growth promotion
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Global climate change has affected agronomy worldwide. Intensive agriculture to meet the global food demand has become troublesome due to the use of large amounts of agrochemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides. This not only raises the costs of the crops but also endangers the health of whole ecosystems. In particular, human health has become an issue, especially because of the use of different types of pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, nematicides, etc.) or even fertilizers that contain metals (copper, zinc, nickel, etc.) or other elements like sulfur, phosphorous or ammonia. The widespread use of pesticides has also affected seriously pollinator species ranging from bees and other insects to mammals like bats.
For centuries, it has been known that some microbial–plant interactions are beneficial to plants and promote their growth through nourishing and modifying the root architecture. Probably the best-known symbiosis between plants and microbes is that among legumes and nitrogen fixing bacteria, mainly Rhizobium spp. (although Burkholderia, Azospirilum, Azotobacter, etc., have also been studied profoundly).
However, fungi also play an essential role in plant nutrition, defense systems and tolerance to several kinds of environmental challenges. This field has strangely been neglected for years and only the association of some mycorrhizae and that of Trichoderma spp. have been described in detail. It is needless to say that fungi can also pose a significant problem in agronomy; most of crop losses are due to fungal infections in crop plants, so an efficient way to control these pests is urgently needed.
This Special Issue in “Agronomy” seeks to publish advances in the knowledge of other fungal–plant interactions (although submissions on mycorrhizae and Trichoderma spp. will also be welcomed). Recently, many reports dealing with other fungal species (Aspergilli, Penicillium, Metarhizium, etc.) have shown that fungi have great potential to substitute pesticides and fertilizers and contribute to a more healthy and sustainable agriculture. In addition, plant pathogen fungi must be studied to prevent crop infections. Therefore, any study that deals with the phenomena described above will be welcome in this Special Issue of Agronomy.
Prof. Dr. Jorge L. Folch-Mallol
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-anonymized 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
- plant–fungal interaction
- abiotic stress tolerance triggered by fungi
- nurture of plants due to fungi
- pathogenic plant fungi
- host–interaction mechanisms
- abiotic stress tolerance in plant–fungal interaction
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