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Call for papers - Plant disease resistance

Guest Editors:
Baffour Badu-Apraku: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria
Fei Shen: Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, China

Submission Status: Open   |   Submission Deadline: 30 June 2023


Moving towards sustainable societies has led to the research community seeking innovative ways to grow and maintain the environment around us, paving the way for a secure future. Within the plant sciences, this has accelerated research on understanding plant disease resistance to ensure sustainable plant and crop breeding towards both conservation and food security. In recognition of this fast-paced area of research, the Editors of BMC Plant Biology launch the collection on Plant disease resistance calling for research supporting the UN's SDGs on Zero hunger, Climate action, sustainable cities and communities, and protecting Life on land. 

Meet the Guest Editors

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Baffour Badu-Apraku: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria

Baffour Badu-Apraku is a Principal Scientist, Maize Breeder, and Quantitative Geneticist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria. His focus includes breeding, testing, and the promotion of technology transfer, especially with regard to the adoption of open-pollinated and hybrid varieties of normal endosperm, Quality Protein (QPM), Pro-vitamin A Maize, and sustainable agronomic practices. Many early and extra-early diseases, Striga, drought, low soil nitrogen-tolerant varieties and hybrids have been developed in his program, formally released, and widely adopted. 


Fei Shen: Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, China


Fei Shen is currently a tenured assistant professor at the Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences (BAAFS) in China. His primary experience is with plant genomes and genome evolution and has been part of whole genome projects of apple, jasmine, and plum. He also works to develop analytical tools that address complex genetic processes. His group’s current interests include comparative and evolutionary genomics to address the mechanistic basis underlying structural and functional genomic changes in flowering plants, with an emphasis on duplication-driven and transposon-mediated gene and genome evolution and genetic dissection of complex traits.



 


About the collection

In their environment, plants are susceptible to diseases caused by microorganisms and pests. This also presents a major threat to food security and has a tremendous environmental impact. This often has serious economic losses to crops each year and can also wipe out entire species of plants, forcing conservation efforts and breeding practices that promote resistance to these diseases. To survive this, they develop a mechanism to fight the diseases either through innate or acquired resistance involving their immune system. Additionally, cutting-edge technologies allow us to investigate the biological process in a higher dimension, including high-throughput sequencing, Single-cell technologies, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, and deep learning. 

In this collection, BMC Plant Biology welcomes submissions that tap into the understanding of disease resistance in plants and build towards building this resistance towards sustainable breeding and crop production. New insights, strategies, datasets, and reviews are encouraged. 

The collection welcomes submissions on the following broad areas of research:

  • Elucidating plant-pathogen interactions through genomics, proteomics, high-throughput sequencing for resistance, virulence genes in crops, and pathogens.
  • Evolution and mechanisms of plant disease resistance
    • Evolution and regulation of R genes, their mode of action, and how R genes initiate immune signaling.
  • Crop protection
    • Use of chemicals and other crop management practices.
  • Disease resistance and conservation
  • Disease resistance and sustainability 
  • Genetic modification of crops to improve disease resistance
    • Genetic-engineered disease resistance in crops
    • CRISPR-Cas gene editing in crops
    • Genetic modifications via RNA interference (RNAi)
    • Resistance gene enrichment sequencing (RenSeq)
  • Breeding for disease resistance
    • Conventional and molecular approaches to breeding for resistance in crops 
  • Cell and molecular biology of disease resistance
  • Plant immune systems and immune mechanisms
    • Innate and acquired immune systems
    • Morphological features, molecular architectures, and mechanisms governing hypersensitive response (HR) cell death in crops.
    • Immune surveillance systems in crops
  • Plant resistance signaling
    • Immune-pathways, structure, function and role in various signaling genes and recognition patterns for resistance in crops
  • Expression and regulatory mechanisms
  • Resistance genes and elicitors of plant immunity
  • Technological and methodological advances in plant disease resistance research



Image credit: Yue Jin

  1. Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by Fusarium graminearum, is one of the most destructive wheat diseases worldwide. FHB infection can dramatically reduce grain yield and quality due to mycotoxins contamination. ...

    Authors: Mitra Serajazari, Davoud Torkamaneh, Emily Gordon, Elizabeth Lee, Helen Booker, Karl Peter Pauls and Alireza Navabi
    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2023 23:290
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Cassava mosaic disease (CMD) of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) has expanded across many continents. Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus (SLCMV; family Geminiviridae), which is the predominant cause of CMD in Thai...

    Authors: Somruthai Chaowongdee, Srihunsa Malichan, Pornkanok Pongpamorn, Atchara Paemanee and Wanwisa Siriwan
    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2023 23:178
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Powdery mildew, caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt), is a serious fungal disease that critically threatens the yield and quality of wheat. Utilization of host resistance is the most effective and eco...

    Authors: Wenjing Zhang, Ziyang Yu, Dongmei Wang, Luning Xiao, Fuyu Su, Yanjun Mu, Jianpeng Zheng, Linzhi Li, Yan Yin, Tianying Yu, Yuli Jin and Pengtao Ma
    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2023 23:113
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have read our submission guidelines. 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 "Plant Disease Resistance" 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 Guest 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 Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.