The Chemical Defenses of Crops against Insect Pests
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Farming Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2020) | Viewed by 19064
Special Issue Editor
Interests: chemical defenses of maize against insect pests and the impact of abiotic stress on biotic stress responses
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Despite advances in breeding and technology, insect pests still have a major impact on global crop productivity, both through direct yield loss and increased production, health and environmental costs associated with insecticide use. Plants have many endogenous defenses to combat attacking insects, and several of these involve defensive chemicals. They can function in direct defense, e.g., toxic or deterrent chemicals and in indirect defense as chemicals that recruit parasites or predators to infested plants. Unfortunately, domestication, the use of monocultures, and the development of resistance in insect pests has depleted the chemical arsenal of many modern crops. A current challenge for agriculture, therefore, is to understand and enhance the chemical arsenal of crop plants to enable them to better fight their own battles. We have created a Special Issue focused on the chemical defenses of crops against insect pests in all their forms and invite you to submit your research and insight on this subject. Submissions on (but not limited to) the following topics are invited: (1) biosynthesis of chemical defenses against insects in crop plants; (2) identification or use of novel anti-insect compounds in crops; (3) the effectiveness of chemical defenses against different insect pests; (4) chemical defenses in multitrophic interactions; and (5) the ability of insects to detoxify or co-opt crop chemical defenses.
Dr. Anna Block
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 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. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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
- Insects
- Metabolites
- Chemical ecology
- Herbivore
- Pest resistance.
