Interaction of Plants and Endophytic Microorganisms: Molecular Aspects, Biological Functions, Community Composition, and Practical Applications Ⅱ

Dear Colleagues,

Endophytes are an endosymbionts, often a bacterium or fungus that resides within a plant without causing apparent disease. They are ubiquitous and have been isolated from almost all plants examined to date. However, most of the endophyte and plant relationships are not well understood, especially in molecular and biochemical aspects. Plant–microbe interactions are not exclusively mutualistic, since endophytic fungi can potentially become pathogens or saprotrophs, usually when the host plant is under stress conditions. At the same time, some endophytes may enhance plant host growth, nutrient acquisition, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and improve plant abiotic and biotic stress tolerance.

This Special Issue "Interaction of plants and endophytic microorganisms: molecular aspects, biological functions, community composition, and practical applications" was created to collect scientific publications devoted to understanding plant–endophyte interactions. The works related to the study of physiological and molecular aspects of such interactions, biological functions, and practical applications will be interesting. This Special Issue aims to gather recent advances in studying the participation of various chemical compounds (stress hormones, secondary metabolites, small RNAs, etc.) in the plant–endophyte interactions. Another important goal is to discuss in more detail possible and actual applications of the knowledge in agriculture and biotechnology.

Dr. Olga A. Aleynova
Dr. Konstantin V. Kiselev
Guest Editors

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