Signaling Events in Regulating Leaf Senescence

Leaf senescence is a critical stage in plant life cycles and is of great importance in agriculture. Initiation and progression of leaf senescence is under the finely-tuned control of a complex network of signaling events that can be triggered by a variety of signals and environmental cues. Signaling pathways initiated by these factors often lead to differential expression of thousands of genes, many of which function in regulating leaf senescence. During the past two decades, a significant number of genes that are involved in senescence regulation have been characterized. The big picture of regulatory networks of leaf senescence, however, remains to be unraveled.

This Research Topic aims to gather new information about signaling pathways that regulate leaf senescence in model plants, as well as crop and horticultural plants. This includes molecular and cellular mechanisms related to known and novel senescence-regulating signals, such as signal perception, receptor activation, phosphorelays, and transcriptional activation/repression. Interactions between different signaling pathways and interactions among known senescence-regulators are of particular interest of this Research Topic.

Specifically, this Research Topic calls for Original Research, Review and Mini Review submissions on molecular biology, physiology, biochemistry, genomics, systems biology, and mathematical modeling. Articles should address the following aspects of leaf senescence:

• New signaling components regulating leaf senescence;
• Receptors of senescence-regulating signals;
• Phosphorylation events critical for leaf senescence;
• Cross-talk between different signaling pathways regulating leaf senescence;
• Transcription regulation of leaf senescence
• Protein stability control during senescence
• Roles of different organelles in senescence
• Metabolic control of senescence
• Inter-organ signaling important in leaf senescence