Plant–Microbe Interactions and Functional Microbiomes for Sustainable Agriculture
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant–Soil Interactions".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 345
Special Issue Editors
2. Food Security and Safety Focus Area, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, North-West University, Mmabatho, South Africa
Interests: plant–microbe interactions; agricultural microbiology; rhizosphere microbiome; biofertilizers; sustainable agriculture; plant pathology
Interests: PGPR; plant–microbe interactions; biocontrol; plant growth promotion
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Global agriculture faces increasing pressure from climate change, soil degradation, and the need to reduce chemical inputs while maintaining crop productivity. Plant–microbe interactions and functional microbiomes play a central role in nutrient cycling, stress tolerance, disease suppression, and overall agroecosystem resilience, yet their potential remains underexploited. Rapid advances in multi-omics technologies, systems biology, and microbiome engineering now offer unprecedented opportunities to move from descriptive studies toward predictive and application-driven solutions for sustainable agriculture. Hence, this Special Issue seeks to advance the mechanistic and functional understanding of plant–microbe interactions and to highlight innovative microbiome-based strategies that can be translated into sustainable and resilient agricultural practices. Through integrating molecular, ecological, and systems-level insights, the Special Issue seeks to translate fundamental discovery with practical applications that enhance crop productivity, soil health, and environmental sustainability. Therefore, this Special Issue invites high-quality original research, reviews, and perspectives that advance our understanding of plant–microbe interactions and functional microbiomes in agricultural systems.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Molecular and physiological mechanisms of plant–microbe interactions, including signaling pathways, host–microbe recognition, and microbial community assembly
- Functional characterization of plant-associated microbiomes (rhizosphere, phyllosphere and endosphere) using multi-omics and integrative approaches.
- Microbiome-mediated nutrient acquisition, stress tolerance, and disease suppression in crops.
- Design, engineering, and application of beneficial microbial inoculants and synthetic communities for sustainable agriculture.
- Microbial ecology and dynamics in agricultural soils, including responses to management practices and environmental change.
- Microbiome-based strategies for reducing chemical inputs and enhancing soil health and crop productivity
Dr. Ayomide Emmanuel Fadiji
Prof. Dr. Gustavo Santoyo
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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
- agroecosystem resilience
- beneficial microbial inoculants
- microbiome engineering
- multi-omics approaches
- microbial ecology
- microbiome-based crop management
- synthetic microbial communities
- stress tolerance in crops
- systems biology
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