Regulation of Membrane Traffic in Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Cellular membrane trafficking machinery is integral for packaging, sorting, secreting, internalising and recycling proteins and other molecules across a highly dynamic set of membrane compartments. Membrane traffic in eukaryotes is largely vesicle mediated. In plants, vesicle traffic co-ordinates with osmotic ion transport for plant cell expansion, growth and morphogenesis. Vesicle trafficking in plants achieves spatio-temporal regulation of protein localisation and activity, maintaining dynamic membrane composition and cell surface area, accommodating changes in cell shape and cell size and delivering cell wall components and signalling molecules to the apoplast. At the plasma membrane, cargoes for vesicle traffic include ion channels, receptors and transporters and contribute to cell growth and development and to a wide range of physiological processes that enable plants to survive under fluctuating environmental conditions. The soluble NSF attachment protein receptor (SNARE) complexes drive fusion between vesicle and target membranes. SNAREs are well conserved in eukaryotes; even so, in plants this family of proteins dispense additional roles in control of ion transport and plant responses to their environment. Interestingly, membrane traffic in plants intersects plant response to endogenous plant hormones and environmental triggers. A balance between pathways for exocytic traffic to the plasma membrane and endocytosis for the removal and recycling of proteins and lipids, thereby regulating their presence and activity, is critical for physiology and development. Despite major advances in our understanding of trafficking machinery, much remains unknown about the regulation of membrane traffic in plants and of the physiological and molecular mechanisms that connect membrane traffic with responses to the environment.

Therefore, in this Special Issue, articles (original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, modelling approaches and methods) are invited for work which explores membrane trafficking mechanisms, identifies mechanisms connecting traffic pathways and analyses the role of membrane traffic in plant responses to the environment.

Dr. Rucha Karnik
Prof. Dr. Ben Zhang
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.

• membrane traffic
• vesicles
• secretion
• endocytosis
• ion transport
• SNAREs