Plant Secretomes: Ways in Shaping Soil Ecosystems
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: canola and wheat pathology; epidemiology of plant pathogens; evolution/genetic variation of fungal pathogens; biological control of plant diseases; breeding for disease resistance microbial; ecology and microbial interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plants do not passively inhabit soil; their roots actively engineer the rhizosphere through a diverse array of secreted molecules. Proteins, peptides, enzymes, and small molecules leak or are exocytosed from root cells, collectively termed root exudates or plant secretome. These compounds shape microbial community composition by functioning as nutrients, chemotactic signals, or antimicrobial weapons, thereby steering competitive outcomes among bacteria, fungi, and archaea. Enzyme release, such as phosphatases, glucanases, or proteases, liberates bound nutrients, modifying soil nutrient cycling rates and organic matter turnover. Small phenolics, flavonoids, and terpenoids modulate redox conditions and metal availability, further influencing biogeochemical processes. Through these biochemical interactions, plants indirectly regulate soil aggregation, carbon sequestration, and nutrient retention, underpinning ecosystem services like fertility enhancement, climate regulation, and disease suppression. Understanding the molecular dialogues initiated by plant secreted molecules is, therefore, pivotal for designing sustainable ecosystems and rehabilitating degraded lands in an era of intensifying environmental change across global soils worldwide.
This Special Issue is supervised by Prof. Dr. Dilantha Fernando and assisted by Dr. Melinda Hayden Kovacs（Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation, Romania) and Dr. Emőke Dalma Kovács（Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation, Romania).
Prof. Dr. Dilantha Fernando
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- plants
- metabolites
- proteins
- peptides
- enzymes
- small molecules
- mass spectrometry
- chromatography
- ecosystem
- ecosystem functions
- ecosystem services
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