Call for articles – Intricate relations of plants-bacteria-fungi and viruses: From biogeochemical to molecular interactions under abiotic stresses

With the ever-increasing climate change, there are substantial concerns about crops facing numerous abiotic stresses. Such abrupt alterations in the environment profoundly affect soil microbes and lead to the development of unusual and novel plant-microbial interactions that influence the plants themselves.

While pathogenic viruses challenge crop physiology and reduce crop yield, mycoviruses may suppress fungal virulence and enhance plant tolerance. Beneficial fungi and bacteria also contribute to the plant defence mechanisms by triggering tolerance levels, enhanced metabolic activities and signalling pathways. However, what the biotic responses against abiotic stresses are and how plants respond towards these abiotic stresses under complex biotic interactions remain to be established.

This Special Issue welcomes manuscripts that explore complex and multilevel plant-bacterial-fungal-viral interactions, which modulate crop physiology and biochemistry under environmental abiotic stressors and play a role in developing plant tolerance to changing abiotic stresses.

We are particularly interested in the following topics:

(i) Nutrient cycling (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, carbon, sulfur) mediated by plant-bacteria-fungi consortia,
(ii) Transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of plant responses to multi-kingdom colonisation,
(iii) Small molecule signalling in plants (phytohormones, siderophores, volatiles) under influence of complex communities
(iv) Plant-viral association under abiotic stresses,
(v) Plant-fungal interactions under abiotic stresses,
(vi) Mycovirus infection of plant-associated fungi and their effects on plant growth under environmental stresses,
(vii) Plant biochemical and molecular responses under beneficial bacterial and fungal amendments
(viii) Remediating effects of virus on fungal-infested plants,
(ix) Effects of climatic changes-associated abiotic stresses on mycoviruses/fungi/PGPR associated with plants.

All submissions need to be sent via Wiley’s Research Exchange submission portal: wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/PPL.

Deadline: 31st May 2026

Good to know: no publication fee and free to view for two months (from Issue compilation)

 

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