Call for papers - Omics of plant-virus-vector interactions

Guest Editors

Ragunathan Devendran, PhD, Martin-Luther University, Germany
Amalendu Ghosh, PhD, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India
Sumit Jangra, PhD, University of Florida, USA

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 31 August 2024

BMC Genomics is calling for submissions for the Collection Omics of plant-virus-vector interactions. We encourage research exploring plant-virus-vector relationships, factors influencing interactions, plant virus-induced responses in insect vectors, diversity of insect vectors, mechanisms of viral infection in both vectors and plants, bioactive metabolites, genes, and proteins involved in various stages of viral infection, internalization, and release in vectors. Additionally, we seek studies on the functions of viral proteins in insect vectors, as well as research involving transcriptomics, small RNAs, and metabolomics information.

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Meet the Guest Editors

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Ragunathan Devendran, PhD, Martin-Luther University, Germany

Dr Devendran earned his PhD from the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India in the area of plant-virus interaction. Subsequently, he did his post-doctoral research in crop virology at the University of Georgia, Tifton Campus, USA. Currently, he is a post-doctoral researcher at Charles Tanford Protein Center at Martin-Luther University, Germany. His area of expertise includes crop virology, plant-virus interaction, and anti-viral resistance in plants

Amalendu Ghosh, PhD, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India

Dr Ghosh is working as a Fulbright Visiting Faculty at the Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University, USA. He is affiliated with Advanced Centre for Plant Virology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India. By training, He is an entomologist who started his research career in understanding the intricate relationship between insect vectors and plant viruses. His decade-long research has helped understanding the transmission biology of under-researched orthotospovirus by thrips vectors. His lab focuses on the RNAi and gene editing of thrips and whiteflies to understand the gene functions in the transmission of orthotospoviruses and begomoviruses. He has successfully implemented several research projects on insect vector-plant virus interactions. He is a recipient of Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Medal, Associate Fellowship of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), India, and Endeavour Research Fellowship by the Australian Government.

Sumit Jangra, PhD, University of Florida, USA

Dr Jangra completed his PhD in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from CCS Haryana Agricultural University, India. Thereafter, he joined ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India as a Senior Research Fellow and worked on plant-virus-vector interactions. He employed cell culture, virus purification, co-localization, transcriptomics, and RNA interference to get better insights into thrips-orthotospovirus complex. Currently, he is a postdoc fellow at Tropical Research and Education Center, University of Florida, USA, and working on management of viral vectors of vegetable crops. Recently in 2023, he joined BMC Genomics as Editorial Board Member.

About the Collection

Insect vectors are the only mobile components in tripartite interactions between plant-virus-vector. The virus alters the biological traits of the vectors in such a manner as to favor virus spread. There are a series of interactions of viral proteins in vector and plant cells. Additionally, every plant-virus-vector interaction is very specific and unique in its characteristics. Little is known about the functions of viral proteins in their vector cells and the role of insect factors interplaying the virus infection, endocytosis, transportation, cellular invasion, and fusion are largely unexplored. Therefore, understanding the critical steps of the virus-vector relationship might help to identify the key targets to interrupt the interrelationship and manage the plant-virus-vector complex. With the advent of next-generation sequencing, omics technologies including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics and methods for evaluation of small RNAs have been widely used to elucidate complex molecular mechanisms. Therefore, these technologies offer an unprecedented opportunity to unravel the molecular mechanism involved in virus infection in plants, as well as the processes of acquisition and transmission by insect vectors.

At present pest control largely depends on the host plant resistance and insecticides. However, limited host resistance to virus-vector complexes is known. Insecticides are largely ineffective against several insect vectors and cause health and environmental hazards. Considering the wide range of plant hosts for plant viruses and insect vectors, the development of transgenic varieties is not a feasible option. However, omics can be utilized for better understanding of the pathways and key genes involved in the interrelationship of plant viruses and insect vectors. Indeed, Interrupting the critical steps in their interactions is a novel option for the sustainable control of insect vectors and plant viruses transmitted by them.

This Collection invites all types of novel findings making use of omics to explain molecular mechanisms involved in virus acquisition, internalization, and transmission by insect vectors. We encourage the exploration of plant-virus-vector relationships and characterization of the factors influencing the interactions, plant virus-induced responses of insect vectors, diversity of insect vectors, mechanisms of viral infection in insect vectors and plants, bioactive metabolites, genes, proteins involved in different stages of viral infection, internalization, and release in vectors, functions of viral proteins in insect vectors, transcriptomics, small RNAs, and metabolomics information with the aim of addressing unknown events of plant-virus-vector interactions. We welcome the submission of original research articles. Potential contributions could include, but are not limited to:

Tracking population outbreaks of insect vectors using mitogenomics
Genomics in elucidating the mechanisms of virus infection in plants, virus acquisition and transmission by insect vectors, insect proteins in plant virus infection, transportation, endocytosis, and cellular fusion
Functional role of viral proteins in insect vectors and plants
Changes in the transcriptome, proteome, and small RNAs profile of the vector and crop plants when infected by the virus

Image credit: martin / stock.adobe.com

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Omics of plant-virus-vector interactions" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.