Molecular Mechanisms of Crop Stress Response and Photosynthetic Optimization
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 May 2026 | Viewed by 1949
Special Issue Editor
Interests: photosynthesis; chloroplast biology; C4 biology; plant functional genomics; crop stress response; crop improvement
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Special Issue, titled ‘Molecular Mechanisms of Crop Stress Response and Photosynthetic Optimization’, is devoted to understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying crop resilience to environmental stress and the strategies to enhance photosynthetic efficiency for improved agricultural productivity. This Special Issue aims to bridge the fields of fundamental molecular biology, omics technologies, and applied crop science to address the global challenges in food security caused by climate change. We welcome researchers to submit original research articles, comprehensive reviews, and brief communications and perspectives that provide novel insights into this research field, addressing the following themes:
- Stress signaling and response: Studies elucidating molecular, genetic, and epigenetic pathways governing crop tolerance to abiotic stresses (e.g., drought, extreme temperatures, salinity) and biotic stresses (e.g., pathogens, pests), including gene functions, signaling pathways, and transcription factor networks.
- Photosynthetic enhancement and adaptations: Innovations in electron transport, carbon fixation (C3, C4, CAM), photoprotection, source–sink relationships under normal conditions or under stress, and optimizing canopy architecture for light-use efficiency.
- Cross-talk between stress and photosynthesis: Investigating how abiotic and biotic stresses impact photosynthetic processes and chloroplast–nucleus retrograde signaling.
- Biotechnological applications: Breeding, engineering stress-resilient crops, improving photosynthetic capacity via overexpression, gene editing, synthetic biology, or metabolic engineering.
- Omics-driven insights: Genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics studies revealing novel stress-responsive or photosynthesis-related targets.
Prof. Dr. Jun Liu
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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants 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.
Keywords
- crop improvement
- crop stress response
- photosynthetic optimization
- abiotic stress signaling
- biotic stress resistance
- gene regulation
- signaling pathways
- omic technologies, chloroplast biology
- stress memory
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