Bio-based Compounds from Plants and Beneficial Microbes for Alleviation of Biotic and Abiotic Stress

With the world’s alarming population growth rate, a major concern for increasing food production has emerged. Many reports indicate an increase of up to 70% in food production globally to provide enough food to the expanding world population. Despite the increasing need for food production, agricultural production continues to be constrained by a variety of biotic (e.g., diseases, insects, and weeds) and abiotic (e.g., drought, salinity, waterlogging, high and low temperatures) factors that significantly cause significant yield loss in various plant cultures.

A series of practices have been studied in recent years to alleviate the negative effects of abiotic and biotic stress for plant health promotion and plant productivity - this includes protective (seed priming, breeding salt-tolerant crops, biostimulation, biofertilization, etc.) and curative practices (cation and anion enrichment, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, controlled irrigation schedule, cultivation system, etc.). One of the most promising and ecologically friendly means is the use of bio-based compounds (derived from plants, algae, or microbes) that can regulate their negative effects of both biotic and abiotic stresses. Plants and microorganisms synthesize and preserve a variety of metabolites known as natural products. Many of them are easily extractable and can be used as starting materials or chemical scaffolds for the production of bio-based compounds that promote plant growth and health. These numerous bioactive metabolites (including terpenoids, alkaloids, phenolics, oligosaccharides, liposaccharides, lipopeptides, etc.) have received great attention, while many of them have become the main component in the development of new plant protection/growth-promoting agents.

This Research Topic aims to gather current research that focuses on the application of natural/bio-based compounds, extracts, phytochemicals, and other metabolites from plants and beneficial microbes, for the alleviation of the negative effects of abiotic and biotic stress, the overall promotion of plant health, and increase in production. Contributions to this Research Topic should focus on the isolation, identification, and evaluation of bio-based compounds for:

• Their beneficial role in plant health, metabolism, growth, and yield, on plants under stress
• Their perception by plants and mode of action at the physiological, biochemical, and molecular level
• Their effectiveness against key pests and diseases, and their use as alternatives to chemical pesticides
• Their effect on increasing tolerance against abiotic stresses (including mineral toxicity, drought stress, or high salinity
• Their potential in alleviating the negative effects of stress
• Their potential uses as sanitizers in postharvest preservation of fresh produce (fruits, vegetables, flowers, and aromatic plants)

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.