Dear Colleagues,

“Genosystematics” is not a widely used term. It was introduced by Andrey Antonov [1] following Sisir Dutta's "DNA systematics" [2] to designate a scientific field, the task of which is to use data on the structure of information macromolecules (semantids) to recognize the systematic position and phylogeny of living organisms. Genosystematics started at the turn of the 50s and 60s of the last century in the works of Lee et al. [3] and the Belozersky team [4] on the elucidation of the kinship relationship between bacteria from the nucleotide composition of DNA. Some time later, the first works on the use of data on the proteins amino acid sequences for phylogenetic reconstructions appeared. A comparative analysis of globins led to the idea of using the number of amino acid substitutions in proteins to estimate the time of their divergence [5].

Over its sixty-year history, genosystematics has come a long way, absorbing the methodological innovations of molecular biology—from paper chromatography of nucleotide bases through DNA-DNA hybridization, isozyme, and immunological analysis to high-throughput sequencing of genomes of the second and now the third generation.

Genosystematics has changed the face of biological systematics and phylogenetics. At present, no research in these areas is possible without the involvement of genosystematic data, the results of which are reflected in global projects such as Tree of Life (http://tolweb.org) and International Barcode of Life (https://ibol.org). The progress of genosystematics is inextricably linked with the development of bioinformatics methods for the analysis of semantids based initially on Henning's cladistics, the large-scale implementation of which became possible due to the creation of extensive semantids databases, the development of computer technologies, and WWW network communication.

A significant number of genosystematic studies have been devoted to plants, leading to a revision of the concepts of phylogeny and taxonomy of many groups. However, the field for research in this area is still far from being closed. This is evidenced by at least the discovery through genome analysis of a new phylum within green plants in recent weeks [6].

In the current Special Issue, it is planned to publish original research, reviews, and short communications on the genosystematics of various groups of terrestrial plants and algae, as well as on methodological and bioinformatics developments in this area.

[1] Antonov, A.S. Genosystematics: from E. Chargaff and A.N. Belozersky to the present. Molecular Biology 2005, 39, 495–502.

[2] Dutta, S. K. (ed.) DNA Systematics v. I-II. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL USA, 1986.  ISBN 13: 978-0-367-25137-6 (hbk); 13: 978-0-429-28628-5 (ebk).

[3] Lee, K. Y.; Wahl, R.; Barbu, E. Contenu en bases puriques et pyrimidiques des acides desoxyribonucléiques des bactéries. Ann. Inst. Pasteur 1956, 91, 212-224.

[4] Spirin A.S., Belozersky A.N., Shugayeva N.V., Vanyushin B.F. A study of species specificity with respect to nucleic acids in bacteria. Biochemistry (Moscow) 1957, 22, 699−707.

[5] Zuckerkandl, E.; Pauling, L. Molecular disease, evolution, and genetic heterogeneity. In Horizons in biochemistry eds. Kasha, M.; Pullman, B.; Academic Press, New York, USA, 1962; pp. 189–225.

[6] Li, L.; Wang, S.; Wang, H.; et al. The genome of Prasinoderma colonial unveils the existence of a third phylum within green plants. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 2020 4, 1220–1231. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1221-7

Prof. Dr. Alex Troitsky
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.

• plants
• genosystematics
• molecular phylogeny
• systematics