Evaluation of the Accumulation and Speciation of Essential and Hazardous Elements in Plants

Dear Colleagues,

The optimal development of all organisms depends upon the proper provision of sufficient amounts of essential elements, and on the exclusion of potentially harmful elements. The cycling of the elements in the food chain begins in the soil solution with the plant root uptake and continues with the transport of elements across plant tissues, ending up—directly or indirectly—on our plates. The root uptake of essential and potentially harmful (hazardous) elements depends on their concentrations and phytoavailability in soils. Similarly, in animal diets, the concentration and chemical form of essential and hazardous elements in plants govern the extent of their intake, thereby controlling the nutritional value of edible plants. Thus, speciation/ligand environment studies are essential in determining the mobility of elements and key metabolic pathways involved in their uptake, transport, and final deposition in plants. Studies of the accumulation and speciation of elements at organ, tissue, and cell levels require state-of-the-art techniques such as X-ray absorption spectroscopy or mass-spectrometry-based techniques, all of which rely heavily on the appropriate sampling, pre-treatment, and storage of plant material.

This Special Issue of Plants is poised to introduce new case studies and novel approaches developed to determine the localization and speciation of essential and hazardous elements in plants in relation to their bioavailability and toxicity.

Prof. Dr. Katarina Vogel-Mikuš
Dr. Paula Pongrac
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.

• metals
• mineral nutrition
• imaging
• stress
• toxicity
• mycorrhiza
• pollution
• synchrotron
• X-ray-based techniques
• MS-based techniques