Mycology and Plant Pathology—2nd Edition

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 882

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Kumho Life Science Laboratory, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Republic of Korea
Interests: mycology; molecular phylogeny; virology; endophytes; biological control social media
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fungi play an essential role in ecosystems as they decompose substances and actively participate in the cycling of nutrients by breaking down organic substances into simple molecules. Mycology is a branch of biology that studies fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and evolution, and their role as a beneficial microbe. Plant pathology or phytopathology studies plant diseases, their mechanisms, and disease control. Mycology is under phytopathology in agriculture as most plant pathogens are fungi, and phytopathogenic fungi decrease crop yield and cause substantial production losses in pre- and post-harvest agriculture.

The Special Issue will focus on but is not limited to plant fungal disease detection, the role of fungi in agriculture, plant–fungi interaction, fungal disease management, mycotoxin production, and endophytic and symbiotic relationships of fungi. I welcome well-prepared manuscripts of original research, review articles, short communications, and new fungal disease reports.

Dr. Narayan Chandra Paul
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 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

  • beneficial fungi
  • disease management
  • fungal diseases
  • mycotoxin
  • plant–fungal interactions
  • phytopathology

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

25 pages, 2879 KiB  
Article
Biocontrol Potential of Raw Olive Mill Waste Against Verticillium dahliae in Vegetable Crops
by Stefanos K. Soultatos, Anastasia Chatzaki, Panagiotis A. Karas, Anastasia A. Papadaki, Georgios S. Kalantzakis, Georgios Psarras, Dimitrios E. Goumas, Dimitrios G. Karpouzas and Emmanouil A. Markakis
Plants 2025, 14(6), 867; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14060867 - 10 Mar 2025
Viewed by 654
Abstract
Verticillium wilt caused by the soil-borne fungus Verticillium dahliae causes severe losses to a broad range of economically important crops worldwide. Chemical disease management is ineffective; thus, alternative control strategies are needed. Olive-producing countries face the challenge of managing olive mill wastewater (OMW) [...] Read more.
Verticillium wilt caused by the soil-borne fungus Verticillium dahliae causes severe losses to a broad range of economically important crops worldwide. Chemical disease management is ineffective; thus, alternative control strategies are needed. Olive-producing countries face the challenge of managing olive mill wastewater (OMW) in an environmentally friendly and agronomically beneficial manner. The proper use of OMW supported by scientific research has been proposed as a valuable means for successful disease management. In this respect, we tested whether soil application of raw OMW can protect vegetable crops against V. dahliae and investigated the potential disease-suppressive mechanisms. OMW inhibited significantly fungal growth, sporulation, hyphae width, and conidial and microsclerotial germination in vitro, and these effects were dose-dependent. Moreover, the addition of OMW in the soil provided sufficient protection of eggplant and tomato against V. dahliae in planta. The high OMW-conferred protection of eggplant was gradually decreased, possibly due to the decreased phenolic content in OMW over time. Bioassays with sterilized soil substrate and OMW, along with isolated microbial strains, revealed that soil- and OMW-originated microbes had no role in disease suppression. Moreover, split-root set-ups suggested a non-systemic OMW-induced resistance mechanism. Root-drench application of OMW in eggplant and tomato plants did not cause significant alterations in the structure of the plant microbiome that could be associated with disease suppressiveness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycology and Plant Pathology—2nd Edition)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop