Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Plant Responses to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, “Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Plant Responses to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses”, focuses on the physiological and molecular mechanisms governing plant adaptation to biotic and abiotic stresses. Throughout their life cycle, plants grown in agricultural and natural settings face a wide array of adverse challenges, ranging from drought, salinity and temperature extremes to infection by pathogens and herbivore feeding. These constraints impair plant growth and development, often resulting in considerable reductions in crop yield. Elucidating how plants perceive environmental stress cues and mobilize endogenous defense responses offers practical insights for developing stress-tolerant crop varieties.

We welcome original research papers, review articles and short communications that deploy physiological and biochemical assays, molecular genetic analyses, bioinformatics workflows and multi-omics platforms. Suitable topics encompass, but are not limited to, physiological modifications induced by stress events, cloning and functional characterization of key regulatory genes underlying plant stress tolerance, and primary stress signaling cascades including Ca²⁺, ABA, JA, SA, IAA, GA, and BR-mediated pathways. Manuscripts describing novel signaling modules and the interplay between distinct stress response pathways are particularly encouraged.

We welcome submissions to this Special Issue of Biology on any of the aforementioned subject areas and any others that are closely related to all aspects of plant responses to environmental stressors.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Ke Mao
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. Biology 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 2700 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.