Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Fungal Disease and Control

Dear Colleagues,

Fungal diseases pose a significant threat to global food security, causing substantial yield losses in agricultural production. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying these diseases is crucial for developing effective strategies to protect crops. Plant-fungal pathogen interactions involve a complex molecular dialogue, with both organisms exchanging signals that influence the outcome of the interaction. Fungal pathogens employ a variety of strategies to invade and colonize plant tissues, including formation of infection structures such as appressorium, enzymatic degradation and modifications of plant cell walls, secretion of effectors, and production of secondary metabolites. Plants have evolved sophisticated defense mechanisms to recognize and respond to fungal attacks. These defenses can be broadly categorized into two main types, pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Given these facts, by elucidating the molecular mechanisms of plant-fungal diseases, researchers can develop new strategies for protecting crops and ensuring global food security.

We are pleased to invite you to the Special Issue “Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Fungal Disease and Control”. This Special Issue will include reviews and original articles, characterizing key infection factors, identifying novel effectors and R proteins, discovering signaling pathways, characterizing key proteins structurally and functionally, designing new molecules to control pathogens, and developing advance disease management approaches.

We also welcome the research on novel fungal diseases and their emerging characteristics, basis of fungal development, innovative control strategies, the relationship between beneficial microorganisms and fungal diseases, and other related topics.

Prof. Dr. Jiaoyu Wang
Prof. Dr. Jun Yang
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. Journal of Fungi 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.

• fungal plant diseases
• molecular fungal phyto-pathogenesis
• fungal-plant interactions
• fungal pathogen growth and development
• effectors and R genes
• phyto-beneficial microbes
• biotechnological applications
• omics, RNAi, transformation in fungi