Plant Biotic and Abiotic Stress Responses and Tolerance: Phytohormonal and Metabolic Insights

A special issue of Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Metabolism".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 2418

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Plant Sciences Department, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
Interests: controlled environment fruit production; RNAi; PGRs; plant–microbe interactions; phytohormones; biostimulants; abiotic stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Animal Industry, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Republic of Korea
Interests: phytohormones; plant–microbe interactions; plant innate immunity; drought stress tolerance; salt stress tolerance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biotic and abiotic stresses reduce crop yields and quality, resulting in substantial annual economic losses. Global climate change further intensifies the frequency and severity of various plant stresses, posing a significant risk to productivity and jeopardizing global food security.

Plants evolved with intricate stress responses and tolerance mechanisms. Phytohormones, diverse primary metabolic pathways (carbon, nitrogen, sulfur metabolism, etc.), secondary metabolites and osmolytes (e.g., phenolics, flavonoids and proline) play significant roles in this complex process. Understanding these mechanisms is critical for formulating different agricultural solutions to mitigate the adverse effects of various biotic and abiotic stresses and improve crop productivity and sustainability.

Agricultural practices lead to enhanced stress tolerance, and overall crop performance is a crucial focus for sustainable crop production. For example, biostimulants and emerging strategies have been evaluated in different cropping systems as stress mitigation tools. However, knowledge of biostimulants (microbial and non-microbial) mediated regulations for the phytohormone crosstalk, and plant primary and specialized metabolic pathways remains unclear.

This Special Issue is a unique opportunity to delve into the current and future perspectives on phytohormonal and metabolic insights of plant biotic and abiotic stress responses and tolerance. We welcome original articles, short communications, reviews and perspectives that explore recent advances in plant stress physiology. The focus is on potential new agricultural sustainable solutions that can enhance crop productivity and stress tolerance in both conventional and protected crop production systems.

Dr. Tabibul Islam
Dr. Md. Al Mamun
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. Metabolites is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.

Keywords

  • biotic and abiotic stress
  • phytohormones: primary metabolism
  • secondary metabolites
  • plant–pathogen interactions
  • biostimulants
  • beneficial microbes
  • plant innate immunity
  • omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.)

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

21 pages, 6380 KiB  
Article
Combined Metabolome and Transcriptome Analyses of Maize Leaves Reveal Global Effect of Biochar on Mechanisms Involved in Anti-Herbivory to Spodoptera frugiperda
by Tianjun He, Lin Chen, Yingjun Wu, Jinchao Wang, Quancong Wu, Jiahao Sun, Chaohong Ding, Tianxing Zhou, Limin Chen, Aiwu Jin, Yang Li and Qianggen Zhu
Metabolites 2024, 14(9), 498; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo14090498 - 14 Sep 2024
Viewed by 700
Abstract
Fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda) has now spread to more than 26 Chinese provinces. The government is working with farmers and researchers to find ways to prevent and control this pest. The use of biochar is one of the economic and environmentally [...] Read more.
Fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda) has now spread to more than 26 Chinese provinces. The government is working with farmers and researchers to find ways to prevent and control this pest. The use of biochar is one of the economic and environmentally friendly strategies to increase plant growth and improve pest resistance. We tested four v/v combinations of bamboo charcoal with coconut bran [BC1 (10:1), BC2(30:1), BC3(50:1)] against a control (CK) in maize. We found that plant height, stem thickness, fresh weight and chlorophyll content were significantly higher in BC2, in addition to the lowest FAW survival %. We then compared the metabolome and transcriptome profiles of BC2 and CK maize plants under FAW herbivory. Our results show that the levels of flavonoids, amino acids and derivatives, nucleotides and derivatives and most phenolic acids decreased, while terpenoids, organic acids, lipids and defense-related hormones increased in BC-grown maize leaves. Transcriptome sequencing revealed consistent expression profiles of genes enriched in these pathways. We also observed the increased expression of genes related to abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, auxin and MAPK signaling. Based on these observations, we discussed the possible pathways involved in maize against FAW herbivory. We conclude that bamboo charcoal induces anti-herbivory responses in maize leaves. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 4642 KiB  
Article
Photosynthetic Activities, Phytohormones, and Secondary Metabolites Induction in Plants by Prevailing Compost Residue
by Lord Abbey, Samuel Kwaku Asiedu, Sparsha Chada, Raphael Ofoe, Peter Ofori Amoako, Stella Owusu-Nketia, Nivethika Ajeethan, Anagha Pradeep Kumar and Efoo Bawa Nutsukpo
Metabolites 2024, 14(8), 400; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo14080400 - 24 Jul 2024
Viewed by 782
Abstract
Compost residue enriches soil health with the potential to enhance plant metabolism and hormonal balance, but has not yet been studied. A study was performed to determine how prevailing compost residue induces tomato (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Scotia’) plant morpho-physiology, phytohormones, and secondary metabolites. [...] Read more.
Compost residue enriches soil health with the potential to enhance plant metabolism and hormonal balance, but has not yet been studied. A study was performed to determine how prevailing compost residue induces tomato (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Scotia’) plant morpho-physiology, phytohormones, and secondary metabolites. Plants were grown in soils with a previous history of annual (AN) and biennial (BI) compost amendments. The controls were soil without compost (C) amendment and municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) alone. The MSWC- and AN-plants had similar and significantly (p < 0.05) highest growth and photosynthetic activities compared to the BI- or C-plants. Total phenolics and lipid peroxidase activity were significantly (p < 0.001) high in BI-plants, while hydrogen peroxide and antioxidant capacity were significantly (p < 0.001) high in AN-plants. MSWC-plants recorded the highest cis-abscisic acid, followed by AN-, and then BI- and C-plants. Cis-zeatin, trans-zeatin, and isopentenyladenine ribosides were detected in the MSWC- and AN-plants but not in the BI- or C-plants. Furthermore, gibberellins GA53, GA19, and GA8 were high in the MSWC-plants, but only GA8 was detected in the AN plants and none in the others. Besides, MSWC plants exhibited the highest content of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid. Conjugated salicylic acid was highest in the BI-plants, while jasmonic acid-isoleucine was highest in MSWC-plants and C plants. In conclusion, prevailing compost chemical residues upregulate plant growth, phytohormones, and metabolic compounds that can potentially increase plant growth and abiotic stress defense. Future work should investigate the flow of these compounds in plants under abiotic stress. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop