Advances in plant microbe interactions

Plant microbe interactions are at the forefront of plant science research and have shaped the way we approach the study and exploration of pro- and eukaryotic organisms and their environment. Advances in plant microbe interactions at the molecular, physiological and ecological levels have improved our understanding of how plants interact with bacteria, fungi and other organisms. These interactions are at the heart of our biological understanding of model organisms that are currently being translated into agricultural applications including but not limited to the biological control of crop protection and performance. In this Research Topic on “Advances in Plant Microbe Interactions” we encourage the participation of researchers that study broad plant host and bacterial or fungal pathogenic systems from prokaryotic bacteria like the Pseudomonads that can protect canola to the interaction of beneficial endophytes with the monocot model system rice. We also propose to showcase the genomics of plant resistance in monocot and dicot plant systems as well as the molecular biology of fungal pathogenesis. This Research Topic raises a number of important biological questions. For example, “How do microbial pathogens manipulate the plant to cause disease”, “What are the molecules responsible for disease resistance in the host plant”, “What are the roles of cell-cell signaling in plant microbe interactions?”, “What are the molecules necessary to cause disease in the microbial pathogen?”, “What are the genes and gene regulatory networks responsible for host pathogen interactions and are they conserved between species?”, and “What novel tools are we using to better understand plant host pathogen interactions?”. The proposed Research Topic will help to elucidate the answers to these questions and provide exceptional insight for those interested in a broad spectrum of biological systems focusing on plant microbe interactions.