Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Responses to Heavy Metal Stress

Dear Colleagues,

Heavy Metal Pollution: Plant Adaptive Mechanisms and Phytoremediation Strategies.

Heavy metal (HM) pollution poses significant challenges to agricultural and ecosystem health. Understanding the complex physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms by which plants respond to HM stress is essential for selecting appropriate plants that can mitigate metal toxicity. This knowledge is crucial for alleviating soil and water contamination through optimized phytoremediation strategies. Recent research has highlighted adaptive adjustment strategies of plants under HM stress, revealing a range of physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses. However, gaps remain in our understanding of how plants perceive, respond to, and adapt to HM exposure, particularly under multiple stress conditions. Bridging these gaps is vital for developing innovative strategies to enhance plant resilience and productivity in HM-polluted environments.

This research topic aims to compile cutting-edge studies and comprehensive reviews to elucidate plant adaptive strategies under HM stress. The main objectives include exploring plant physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses to HM exposure, understanding mechanisms of HM-induced oxidative stress, and identifying holistic solutions to improve plant recovery capabilities under complex environmental conditions. Specific questions to address include how plants perceive and respond to HM stress at the molecular level, what the key genes and metabolic pathways involved in HM tolerance are, how omics approaches can reveal HM tolerance mechanisms, and how plants epigenetically respond to HM stimuli.

To further understand plant adaptive mechanisms under HM stress, we welcome submissions discussing, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Characterizing plant uptake, accumulation, distribution, and detoxification processes of HMs, including competition with nutrient uptake;
• Genome-wide identification, comparison, and evolutionary analysis of plant ion transporter protein (including metal ion transporter protein) families;
• Clarifying the genetic and molecular basis of plant adaptation to HM accumulation, with a focus on signaling pathways and metabolic adjustments;
• Utilizing omics methods to reveal mechanisms of plant tolerance to HMs, including tolerance mechanisms in hyperaccumulators and perennial plants (woody species);
• Investigating mechanisms of HM-induced oxidative stress, the roles of ROS and RNS, and their dependent signaling pathways;
• Conducting functional validation and in-depth physiological studies of key genes and proteins involved in HM tolerance and stress recovery;
• Studying plant stress responses to HMs under multiple stress factors or with exogenous substance additions to determine the physiological and molecular mechanisms of plant responses to complex signaling under HM stress.

Dr. Fang He
Dr. Mengxue Niu
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.

• heavy metal pollution
• plant adaptive mechanisms
• phytoremediation strategies
• oxidative stress
• molecular responses
• genetic tolerance
• omics approaches