Antioxidant Metabolism in Plants and Algae

Dear Colleagues,

Antioxidants are small molecular weight compounds that effectively scavenge free radicals, protect cells, delay aging, and prevent diseases. Photosynthetic organisms, including higher plants, algae, and also cyanobacteria, are constantly challenged by the oxidative environment and have thus developed sophisticated metabolic and regulatory networks for the biosynthesis of antioxidants. Moreover, humans are not able to synthesize most of the antioxidants and have to uptake them as essential phytonutrients from our diets. The elucidation of the metabolic reactions and their corresponding regulations, in addition to their evolution and specialization, would expand our understanding of the natural metabolic processes and also facilitate future biofortification research for enhancing the nutritional value of staple crops.

This Special Issue aims to collect papers dealing with all aspects of antioxidants from plants (including algae and cyanobacteria), such as, but not limited to, carotenoids, anthocyanins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and phenolics. Papers describing recent developments in the molecular regulation of these metabolisms and their responses to environmental challenges will be especially welcome, although molecular cloning and functional characterization of specialized enzymes are also within the scope of this Special Issue. Because there has been a large body of reports on the bioactivity of antioxidants to humans, and there are other more suitable Special Issues in this journal opening in parallel, those physiological and/or nutritional studies, and other studies using animal systems, will not be considered.

Prof. Dr. Shan Lu
Prof. Dr. Chunyi Zhang
Prof. Dr. Aixia Cheng
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. Antioxidants 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 2900 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.