Call for Papers: Special Issue on “Below-ground storage organs”
Plant and Soil is seeking submissions for a Special Issue on ‘Below-ground storage organs’ guest edited by Tobias Wojciechowski, Peter Gregory, Johannes Postma.
Submissions close 31 January 2023
Special issue papers accepted for publication in the special issue will be available online very soon after acceptance, and before inclusion in the special issue. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed by 2-3 independent reviewers and handled by the Guest Editors, in collaboration with the Journal’s Section Editors.
Below ground storage organs are the second most important source of carbohydrates to humans worldwide. Besides providing calories for humans they also mediate environmental stress and therefore, play an important role in ensuring the survival of plants. They can have different morphologies in forms of (swollen) roots, corms, rhizomes, tubers and bulbs. Additionally, buds of belowground storage organs, such as tubers and rhizomes, facilitate clonal growth and spread of the plant. Similarities and differences between storage organ development in different plant species are important fields of research.
Belowground storage organs provide carbohydrates for re-growth after dormancy or adverse environmental conditions. Starch is mainly stored as it is not osmotically active and serves as a long-term reservoir for plants. Stored oligo- and poly-saccharides allow plants to regulate the osmotic potential in other organs to prevent osmotic stress due to cold / freezing, and drought. While mono- and di-saccharides, including alcohols, increase during drought, and can decrease osmotic potential of the organ. Furthermore, the storage of oligo- and short polysaccharides is considered a good adaptation to cold stress and drought. Carbon partitioning and source/sink relationships are an important area of research to understand the response to environmental cues.
In this special issue we aim to collect together a set of insightful papers which highlight the importance of belowground storage organ research, their role in the lifecycle of plants and mitigation of adverse environmental conditions, and their contribution in providing carbohydrates to humans.