Huazhong Agricultural University

Frontiers in Plant Science is a leading, multidisciplinary journal that seeks to advance our understanding of fundamental processes in plant biology.

Led by Field Chief Editor Prof. Chun-Ming Liu (Peking University, China) and indexed in PubMed, PubMed Central, and Scopus, among others, the journal seeks original and significant contributions that cultivate plant biology and its applications. The journal has the long-term goal of supporting sustainable development, food security, functional ecosystems, biotechnology (including biofuels and biomaterials), and human health.

Frontiers in Plant Science welcomes Original Research, Review, Opinion, and Perspective articles, among other submission types, covering the journal’s specialty sections:

* aquatic photosynthetic organisms
* crop and product physiology
* functional plant ecology
* functional and applied plant genomics
* photosynthesis and photobiology
* plant abiotic stress
* plant bioinformatics
* plant biophysics and modeling
* plant biotechnology
* plant breeding
* plant cell biology
* plant development and EvoDevo
* plant genetics, epigenetics and chromosome biology
* plant membrane traffic and transport
* plant metabolism and chemodiversity
* plant nutrition
* plant pathogen interactions
* plant physiology
* plant proteomics and protein structural biology
* plant symbiotic interactions
* plant systematics and evolution
* plant systems and synthetic biology
* sustainable and intelligent phytoprotection
* technical advances in plant science.

Furthermore, the journal welcomes submissions that support and advance the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 13: climate action and SDG 15: life on land.

Frontiers in Plant Science is committed to advancing developments in the field of plant biology by allowing unrestricted access to articles and communicating scientific knowledge to researchers and the public alike, to enable the scientific breakthroughs of the future.

Requirements

Manuscripts that focus on non-plant-related microbiology, human or animal genetics, and medical and pharmacological research are not suitable for publication in this journal. Pure field agriculture studies such as those focusing on fertilizer application or yield optimization, without relevance to plant science, are also not within the scope of this journal.

Studies falling into the categories below will not be considered for review in this journal unless they are expanded and provide insight into the biological process being studied:
i) Descriptive collections of transcripts, proteins, or metabolites, including comparative sets as a result of different conditions or treatments;

ii) Descriptive studies that define gene families using pure phylogenetics and the assignment of cursory functional attributions (e.g. expression profiles, promoter analysis, and bioinformatic parameters).

Quantitative analysis needs to be performed on a minimum of three biological replicates in order to enable an assessment of significance. This includes quantitative omics studies (transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) as well as phenotypic measurements, quantitative assays, and qPCR expression analysis. Studies that do not comply with these replication requirements will not be considered for review.

Studies using transgenic or mutant lines (plants and algae), for example, T-DNA, transposon, RNAi, CRISPR/Cas9, chemically induced, overexpressors and reporter fusions (GUS, GFPs, LUC), should be based on data from multiple alleles (minimum of two) displaying a common and stable phenotype. Qualitative data can be presented from a single allele but should be indicative of observations from multiple alleles which should be explicitly stated in the text. Quantitative data should be derived from multiple alleles (at least two) and should be displayed separately for each allele (with at least three independent replications for each allele). Studies reporting single alleles may be considered acceptable when:

i) Complementation via transformation is used for confirmation;

ii) The allele has been previously characterized and published, and is representative of multiple independent lines;

iii) In situations where genetic transformation is difficult or not yet possible, alternative evidence should be presented.

Frontiers in Plant Science is member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Frontiers in Plant Science

The clubroot disease has become a worldwide threat for crucifer crop production, due to its soil-borne nature and difficulty to eradicate completely from contaminated field. In this study we used an elite resistant European fodder turnip ECD04 and investigated its resistance mechanism using transcriptome, sRNA-seq, degradome and gene editing. A total of 1751 DEGs were identified from three time points after infection, among which 7 hub genes including XTH23 for cell wall assembly and two CPK28 genes in PTI pathways. On microRNA, we identified 17 DEMs and predicted 15 miRNA-target pairs (DEM-DEG). We validated two pairs (miR395-APS4 and miR160-ARF) by degradome sequencing. We investigated the miR395-APS4 pair by CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene editing, the result showed that knocking-out APS4 could lead to elevated clubroot resistance in B. napus. In summary, the data acquired on transcriptional response and microRNA as well as target genes provide future direction especially gene candidates for genetic improvement of clubroot resistance on Brassica species.

Meixiu Wu's research while affiliated with Huazhong Agricultural University and other places

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