Uptake and Systemic Transport of Fungicides in Plants

Dear Colleagues,

The most ancient peoples sought to protect cultivated plants against pathogens with the use of more or less empirical methods. It was at the end of the 18^th century, and especially in the 19^th century, that the first mineral fungicides were used more rationally, particularly for products based on copper sulphate or sulphur. However, it was not until the middle period of the 20^th century that the first highly effective organic fungicides of the dithiocarbamate family appeared. Like inorganic chemicals, these molecules remain on the surface of plants after application; they are referred to as "contact fungicides". In the 1960s, the development of systemic fungicides offered new opportunities in disease control and fungicide application, as they are capable of penetrating the plant and acting at a distance from the point of application. Due to their high efficacy, these products have considerably improved the control of fungal diseases in cultivated plants and have contributed to a significant increase in crop production.

However, this change in farming practices has been accompanied by an increasing concern about the possible adverse effects of plant protection compounds. This is why there is now a trend towards rationalising the use of these compounds worldwide, in particular by reducing the used quantities (for example, see the Ecophyto plan in France). Nevertheless, the world’s population continues to grow rapidly and agricultural production must be maintained to meet food needs. One way to reconcile these two apparently contradictory requirements is to improve the bioavailability of plant protection compounds. An active ingredient must overcome a number of barriers before it can reach its site of action. The bioavailability of a plant protection compound can be defined as "the fraction of the dose of active ingredient applied to the plant (aerial parts or root system) that reaches the target site to exert its biological action, and the rate at which the process takes place" (Wu et al., 2019). The uptake, translocation, and distribution of fungicides in plants can significantly influence their bioavailability. While research in this field has accumulated a great deal of knowledge over the past four decades, many questions remain unresolved or deserve to be further developed or updated. Hence, in this Special Issue, articles (original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, or modelling approaches and methods) that deal with the uptake and systemic transport of fungicides in plants, including, but not limited to crossing different barriers, the influence of the formulation, nanocarriers, molecular modelling and new predictive models, vectorization of agrochemicals, experimental study models, evaluation of losses between application and target, the relationship between systemicity and biological efficacy, properties of new systemic compounds, and perspectives on new molecules to fight currently incurable diseases, are most welcome.

Dr. Jean-François Chollet
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.

• fungicide uptake
• fungicide systemicity
• fungicide transport
• crossing the plant plasma membrane
• crossing the plant cuticle
• molecular modelling
• vectorization
• new systemic fungicides