Plant Molecular Biology - Call for Papers: Chemical priming as a sustainable tool for improved crop production

The global population is increasing rapidly and projected to reach ∼9.5 billion by 2050. Ensuring that sufficient food continues to be produced for the increasing population is a major challenge for plant scientists. Meanwhile, environmental challenges (such as high temperature and CO₂ levels, drought, and salinity stress) and biotic stresses (such as insect pests and viruses) are worsening, limiting crop production. Thus, integrated efforts are required to improve crop production with sustainable methods.

Chemical biology/chemical priming could contribute towards crop improvement while improving farmers’ income and ultimately contributing towards good health and sustainable agricultural practices. Chemical priming has been shown to enhance crop production and stress tolerance in commercially important crops, offering a unique opportunity to improve crop production without the need for genetically modifying crop plants. In recent years, much progress has been made in chemical priming, ranging from screening chemical libraries for stress tolerance and utilizing plant hormones and metabolites as well as synthetic compounds as potential priming agents to improve plant growth and crop improvement.

This special issue of Plant Molecular Biology will focus on innovative methods and research providing new insights into plant molecular biological problems and ways to address them. The issue will be a venue to share the latest trends in the chemical biology of plants related to all aspects of plant biology including (but not limited to) plant stress response.

Manuscripts may be submitted no later than 29 February 2024 through Plant Molecular Biology’s submission site (this opens in a new tab). Authors should select this special issue during the “Additional Information” step by choosing “Chemical priming as a sustainable tool for improved crop production”. All manuscripts will be subject to standard peer review and evaluation.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Guest editors

Dr. Khurram Bashir (Lead Editor)
Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan
https://lums.edu.pk/lums_employee/7494 (this opens in a new tab) 

Dr. Vasileios Fotopoulos
The Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
http://plant-stress.weebly.com/ (this opens in a new tab)