Plant Virology and Disease Management in Crops

Dear Colleagues,

Plant viral diseases pose a significant threat to global agriculture by reducing crop yields and quality, thereby challenging food security. The application of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) has led to the identification of hundreds of new viruses. It is now time to delve deeper into their biological and molecular characteristics, pathogenicity, and management strategies.

As climate change and global trade expand the distribution of plant viruses and their vectors, understanding and managing these diseases become increasingly vital. Additionally, shifts in virus populations—whether due to climate change, the introduction of new host varieties, or altered cultivation practices—represent an important and emerging area of study.

This Special Issue, "Plant Virology and Disease Management in Crops", aims to gather cutting-edge research and reviews addressing the biology, detection, pathogenicity, population genetics, and control of plant viruses in diverse crop systems. We welcome contributions that explore both fundamental virology and applied aspects of disease management.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Molecular biology and genetics of plant viruses;
• Virus–host interactions and mechanisms of pathogenicity;
• Novel diagnostic techniques and their validation (e.g., qRT-PCR, LAMP, NGS-based tools, e-probes, CRISPR/Cas-based detection methods);
• Emerging and re-emerging plant viruses;
• Epidemiology and virus–vector ecology;
• Genetic resistance and breeding strategies;
• CRISPR/Cas and RNAi-mediated resistance;
• Integrated pest and disease management approaches;
• Population dynamics and shifts in known viruses due to climate change, host variety selection, or cultivation systems;
• Case studies of successful disease control in the field;
• Modeling of virus disease progression and crop loss estimation.

Original research articles, reviews, short communications, and perspectives are all welcome. We hope this Special Issue will serve as a valuable resource for plant pathologists, agronomists, virologists, and crop protection specialists.

Dr. Shaheen Nourinejhad Zarghani
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.

• plant virus biology
• virus–host interactions
• viral pathogenicity in plants
• population genetic
• genetic diversity
• plant virus epidemiology
• virus evolution in crops
• cultivation systems and virus adaptation management of plant viruses