The Role of Exogenous Silicon in Plant Response to Abiotic Stress

Dear Colleagues,

Abiotic stresses from salt, drought, heavy metals, nutrient deficiencies, and extreme temperatures, caused by environmental degradation and climate change, represent major threats to agricultural production in many countries worldwide. Moreover, with the rapid increase in the world’s population, developing climate-resilient crops for improving global food security and safety and meeting the increasing food demand is an urgent issue for global society, particularly considering the uncertainties of climate change. In this context, silicon (Si) has emerged as a promising biostimulant to improve plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. In fact, the positive effects of Si on plant agro-physiological and biochemical processes have been shown in several species under unfavorable conditions. However, information on the mechanisms underlying the mitigation of different abiotic stresses, particularly at the proteomic and metabolomic levels, is scarce. Therefore, in this Special Issue, we will highlight the role of Si in enhancing crop tolerance to abiotic stress, alongside the molecular, proteomic, and metabolomic mechanisms behind it.

This Special Issue welcomes submission of research articles, reviews, and mini-reviews related to the following sub-topics:

• Promoting effects of Si on plant physiological and biochemical adaptation to abiotic stress;
• Effect of Si on plant ionomics and associated gene expression;
• Metabolomic and proteomic analyses in Si-treated plants.

All research efforts (applied or not) regarding the growth-promoting effects of Si in mitigating different abiotic stressors’ detrimental influences are extremely encouraged.

Dr. Farissi Mohamed
Dr. Ahmed El Moukhtari
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-anonymized 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.