Omics in Plant–Pathogen Interaction: Recent Advances and Future Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

Plant diseases caused by pathogenic organisms pose a significant threat to global food security and agricultural sustainability. Understanding the complex interactions between plants and pathogens is crucial for developing effective disease management strategies. Over the years, the use of high-throughput tools and approaches that enable the comprehensive analysis of various molecular components within an organism's system have revolutionized our ability to study and analyze these plant-pathogen interactions at a molecular level. Advances OMIC Technologies, from de most classical applications (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) to the more recent developments as single-cell analysis or spatial OMICs enable a more holistic understanding of cellular responses variability within a tissue and pathogen targets. Moreover, by integrating data obtained from multiple OMIC platforms, researchers can gain insights into the intricate mechanisms underlying plant-pathogen interactions.

This special issue will be focused on cutting edge knowledge on plants defense mechanisms to different pathogens (e.g., bacteria, oomycetes, fungi, nematodes) obtained from the application of classic and novel OMICs approaches. Also, a specific overview of plant-pathogen interaction including the role of plant symbionts (e.g., mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi or bacteria) on the modulation of plant defense responses, the action of pathogen effectors or specific aspects of defense pathways (e.g., hormone signaling) will be considered.

We welcome all scientific works (original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, modeling approaches and methods) focused on the application of any OMIC’s technology to the study plant-pathogen interactions.

Topics include, but are not limited to: 

• Classic and novel Omics approaches to gain insight into host-pathogen communication
• Characterization of host responses and pathogen infection strategies
• Studies that apply OMIC platforms to subcellular compartments (eg. apoplast) in plant-pathogen interaction
• Omics applied to the study of plant and soil microbiomes and their impact on plant responses to pathogens
• Studies presenting new tools to support OMIC studies, including innovative bioinformatic approaches.

Dr. Andreia Figueiredo
Dr. Rita B. Santos
Dr. Marisa Maia
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.

• plant immunity
• OMIC platforms
• spatial OMICs
• single cell
• programmed cell death
• apoplast
• systemic resistance
• hormone crosstalk
• signaling pathways
• pathogenicity
• pathogen effectors
• secretome