Endophytes: Improving Plants Performance

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue ‘Endophytes: Improving Plants Performance’ aims to compile the latest information and innovations in the field of plant-microbe interaction research. This includes, but is not limited to, providing fundamental insights into the understanding of the microbial biodiversity of organisms associated with plant systems.

Endophytes represent microorganisms that reside within plant tissues, without typically causing adverse effects to the plants, for a substantial part of their life cycle, and are primarily known for their beneficial role to their host plant. Specific endophytes may have evolved with their host, and could be a source of yet unknown novel molecules, with potential pharmaceutical, agricultural or environmental significance. This Special Issue of Microorganisms will cover the different aspects of microbial endophytes, and their role in plant growth, survival in stress conditions, biological control agents, and in sustainable agricultural production systems.  

The following topics will be considered, among others:

• Plant-microbe interaction;
• Biodiversity of endophytic microbiomes in normal, as well as extreme, habitats;
• Effect of the phyllo- and rhizospheric microbiome in shaping the endophytic microbiome;
• PGP mechanisms (solubilization, nitrogen fixation, and phytohormone production);
• Beneficial microbes for nutrient uptake, cycling and soil fertility;
• Extremophiles (archaea, bacteria, fungi, etc.) in improving crop productivity;
• Microbe-mediated drought/salinity/heat/cold stress in plants;
• Metabolic engineering for endophytic strains to improve plant growth promotion;
• Biofertilizers and biopesticides.

Dr. Camilla Fagorzi
Dr. Alessio Mengoni
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. Microorganisms 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 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.