Effects of Cyanobacterial Toxins on Plant Cell

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the topic “Effects of Cyanobacterial Toxins on the Plant Cell”, proposed for the MDPI journal Plants, has been accepted and that we are now accepting submissions.

Toxic cyanobacterial blooms are caused by the eutrophication of freshwaters and marine waters, partly because of temperature increases due to global warming. These blooms significantly affect aquatic ecosystems as well as agriculturally important crops—the latter being harmed by the contamination of waters used for irrigation. All these phenomena are ultimately influencing human health through food chains.

Cyanobacterial toxins affecting higher plants belong to different classes. The most common are microcystins (MCs, MCY), i.e., heptapeptides with specific and potent inhibitory effects on type 1 and 2A protein phosphatases. These enzymes play crucial roles in eukaryotic signal transduction and cell cycle regulation; their harmful effects on plants are thus exerted primarily at the cellular level. Anatoxins (ANAs) are known primarily as neurotoxins that affect neurotransmission, but surprisingly they are also influencing plant growth and development. An interesting compound is the alkaloid cylindrospermopsin (CYN) that is believed to inhibit eukaryotic protein synthesis, but its molecular effects are still poorly understood.

All these “classical” cyanotoxins as well as newly discovered ones interfere significantly with cellular and subcellular processes that will have consequences in tissue and whole-body structure and functioning. Due to the above reasons, research in this area is of crucial importance. In this topical Special Issue of Plants, both reviews and regular research papers are welcome in the following subtopics:

• Biochemical effects of cyanotoxins in plants
• Cyanotoxins’ effects on subcellular structures and processes including cell death
• Cyanotoxins and hormonal regulation of development in plants
• Effects at the whole-plant and ecosystem level

We look forward to your contributions to this Special Issue of Plants.

Dr. Csaba Máthé
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 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.