About this Research Topic

Background

Note: We welcome in-scope submissions arising from oral and/or poster presentations from the 12th International Symposium on Selenium in Biology and Medicine. However, submissions are also warmly welcomed from non-attendees.

Selenium (Se) is one of the most influential natural-occurring nutrient elements for living systems. Dietary Se from crops and animal feed are essential for metabolism and normal physiological processes in humans and animals. There are multi-faceted interactions among soil properties, crop species, and microorganisms in different environments, which significantly affect chemical behaviors of Se in agricultural soils, uptake, accumulation and speciation of Se in plant. Thus, there is an essential need to better understand Se in the soil-plant-animal system, and thereby effectively improve Se bioavailability in soil and bioaccessibility in food products and feed materials for preserving human and animal health. Recognizing selenium’s impact on a multitude of processes in nature, requires multi-disciplinary research on Se absorption, chemical transformation, and biochemical and physiological metabolisms in soil-plant-animal systems that can help us develop and implement effective strategies to mitigate public health impacts or concerns of Se deficiencies in the world.

The biological importance of Se has been firmly established previously by scientists for its essential roles in various molecular, biochemical and physiological mechanisms related to plant, animal, and human health. With approximate 1 billion people facing some degree of Se deficiency throughout the world, it is imperative that this special section will provide a myriad of the latest and comprehensive knowledge on various inter-related aspects of Se in supporting and protecting animal, human, and ecosystem health. This collection will enhance our understanding on roles of Se in food chain transfer and crop biofunction. We intend to bring together contributions from international recognized Se researchers who represent different but interrelated research disciplines involving physiochemical and biological behaviors of Se within the larger foundation topics of agricultural soil, bioavailability, plant uptake and accumulation, molecular and physiological responses, microbial transformation, biofortification, functional food processing, and animal health.

This collection of papers will consider original research reports and critical reviews concerned with Se in food chains and its effects on human and animal health. The topics might include but are not limited to the following: biogeochemical processes of Se, nutritional quality of human dietary materials derived from plant and/or animal for humans, technologies of developing Se-biofortified agricultural food products via agronomic and biotechnological approaches like molecular and genetic engineering, and functional food production. Research articles that address Se-focused agricultural production systems from production, processing, distribution, and consumption are additionally welcomed. We will particularly consider manuscripts that deal with soil Se origin, bioavailability, uptake and metabolism in plants, and Se bioaccessibility in humans and animals.

Please note that descriptive studies and those defining gene families or descriptive collection of transcripts, proteins, or metabolites, will not be considered for review unless they are expanded and provide mechanistic and/or physiological insights into the biological system or process being studied.

Keywords: selenium, absorption, metabolism, chemical transformation, plant nutrition, soil system, human and animal health, SE2021

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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