Plant Secondary Metabolism and Functional Biology Volume II

Submission Deadline: 30 September 2025 View: 88 Submit to Special Issue

Guest Editors

Prof. Dr. Qiangsheng Wu

Email:wuqiangsh@163.com

Affiliation: College of Horticulture and Gardening, Yangtze University, China

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Research Interests: fruit mycorrhizae; drought physiology in citrus plants; polyamine; glomalin

Prof. Dr. Nong Zhou

Email: erhaizn@126.com

Affiliation: College of Biology and Food Engineering, Chongqing Three Gorges University, China

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Research Interests: Chinese medicinal plants, secondary metabolism, soil microorganisms

Associated Prof. Dr. Chun-Yan Liu

Email: chunyanliu_2009@126.com

Affiliation: College of Horticulture and Gardening, Yangtze University, China

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Research Interests: Amino acids, auxin, tea, secondary metabolism

Summary

Plants have evolved diverse secondary metabolic pathways, some serving as a portal for human demand for natural substances such as medicines, nutrition, agrochemicals, and chemical additives. However, most secondary metabolites have low amounts, making them challenging to acquire on a large scale. Secondary metabolites are often spatiotemporally biosynthesized and are capable of adapting to and surviving a variety of biotic and abiotic stressors. Meanwhile, exogenous stimuli can initiate a cascade of regulatory processes, which increase the concentration of secondary metabolites. Recently, it was concluded that secondary metabolites in plants are not secondary because they contribute significantly to plant growth and development. Further investigation into their biosynthesis, regulation, and functions as stress-resistant compounds will lay the foundation for expanding the proportion of plant secondary metabolites. This thematic issue aims to showcase studies that focus on (1) the Identification of key genes involved in the regulation or biosynthesis of secondary metabolites; (2) Integrated application of omics technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) in secondary metabolites; (3) Heterologous production of valuable secondary metabolites by metabolic engineering.

We encourage original research and review articles on any of the following topics (but not limited to):

1. Biosynthesis and molecular control of natural products made from plants

2. Multi-omics approaches to the investigation of secondary metabolic pathways

3. Metabolic engineering-based synthetic biology of valuable secondary metabolites

4. Stress tolerance and physiological regulation mechanism of plants

Keywords