Dear Colleagues,

Signal transduction occurs in all living organisms and is well-established as a central theme of the biological sciences. Plants are sessile organisms that have developed complex signaling systems in accordance with their ever-changing environments. During their life cycle, plants continually perceive and transduce developmental signals and environmental cues through signal transduction pathways and crosstalk networks for the fast and fined-tuned regulation of growth and development. These signaling pathways are considered the basis of complex traits such as yield potential, stress resistance and defense, which are major breeding objectives in crop plants in order for production to meet global food demand. It is expected that relevant knowledge may provide novel ideas and key target genes for obtaining breakthrough research in crop improvement.

Over the past two decades, remarkable progress has been made from studies on signaling pathways in Arabidopsis and other model plants. Recently, integrative application of omics technologies (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, interactomics and metabolomics), bioinformatics tools, mutational techniques, biotechnological developments, and emerging novel approaches have greatly facilitated the identification of signaling pathways and genetic components involving a diverse range of biological processes from seed germination, shoot and root development, photosynthetic regulation, flowering and fertilization, seed formation and fruit ripening, to stress and environmental responses in many different plant species, including crops.

This Special Issue on “Signal Transduction Pathways in Plants“ aims to collect the latest research and review articles that advance our understanding and provide new perspectives of signal transduction pathways in plants. We especially encourage the submission of manuscripts that involve efforts to explore signaling pathways with the view of crop improvement in modern agriculture.

Prof. Dr. Ruqiang Xu
Prof. Dr. Fang Wei
Dr. Yingpeng Hua
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 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. Genes 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.

• signal transduction
• signaling pathways
• signaling crosstalk
• signal perception
• second messengers
• signaling molecules
• pathway genes
• developmental signaling
• defense signaling
• nutrient sensing
• hormone signaling
• stress signaling
• photosynthesis signaling
• environmental signaling
• cell communication