Plant–Microbe Interactions: Unlocking Adaptive Strategies for Nutrient Efficiency and Stress Resilience

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant–Soil Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 155

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
Interests: plant-soil-microbe interactions; plant abiotic stress responses and tolerance; nutrient use efficiency; rhizosphere biology

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Guest Editor
Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Floriculture, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biosafety and Green Production of Upper Yangtze River (Ministry of Education), College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: genetic breeding; biotechnology; abiotic stresses; hormonal crosstalk
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plant–microbe interactions play a fundamental role in enhancing nutrient uptake, improving soil fertility, and increasing plant resilience to environmental stresses. Beneficial microbes, including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), Trichoderma, rhizobia, and plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), influence root development, rhizosphere chemistry, and plant defence mechanisms, particularly under nutrient-deficient and stress-prone conditions. This Special Issue aims to explore how microbial associations help plants adapt to both abiotic and biotic stressors, such as drought, salinity, heavy metal toxicity, temperature fluctuations, and plant diseases, etc., and also aims to highlight research on the molecular mechanisms underlying plant–microbe interactions, including microbial signalling, root exudate-mediated communication, and gene expression regulation.

We invite the original research and review articles focusing on mechanistic insights, molecular signalling, microbial consortia, and rhizosphere interactions. Additionally, studies incorporating omics technologies, biotechnological applications, and field-based strategies for sustainable agriculture are encouraged.

Dr. Hafiz Athar Hussain
Dr. Daofeng Liu
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. 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

  • plant-microbe interactions
  • nutrient uptake efficiency
  • stress tolerance
  • root exudates
  • molecular signalling
  • soil microbiome engineering

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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