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Plant Metabolism and Natural Product Biosynthesis
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Plant Metabolism and Natural Product Biosynthesis

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2026 | Viewed by 2839

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Andrej Frolov

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzenbiochemie, Weinberg 3, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany
Interests: bioanalytics; chromatography; mass spectrometry; proteomics; metabolomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to introduce our new Special Issue. This Special Issue, entitled “Plant Metabolism and Natural Product Biosynthesis”, is supervised by Dr. Andrej Frolov and assisted by Dr. Anastasia Orlova (Laboratory of Analytical Biochemistry and Biotechnology, K.A. Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology, Russian Academy of Science). The scope of this Special Issue includes all aspects of plant primary and secondary metabolism, with special emphasis on biosynthetic processes, including biotechnology applications and other practical implementations. In this Special Issue, we aim to address both the whole complexity of the plant biochemical network (by means of metabolomics techniques and bioinformatics tools) and individual reactions of this network probed by the methods of enzymology, molecular biology, and genome modification techniques. Thus, on the one hand, we invite the submission of manuscripts focused on the comprehensive profiling of multiple metabolites, which might give access to plant metabolic responses (both at the tissue/organ and systemic level) to ecological constrains and/or insights into the aspects of plant physiological integrity, development, and systematics. On the other hand, descriptions of new pathways and reactions (both in general and for specific plants) and structural assignments of new metabolites are welcomed. The regulation of plant metabolism is another aspect that we aim to cover in our Special Issue. Finally, manuscripts focused on analytical techniques for plant metabolism research are encouraged to be part of this Special Issue.

Dr. Andrej Frolov
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • plant metabolism
  • natural product
  • biosynthesis
  • metabolomics
  • bioinformatics

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 2774 KB  
Article
Hydrogen Peroxide-Oxidative Signaling Enhances Biosynthesis of Specialized Metabolites in Baccharis conferta Kunth
by Norma Elizabeth Moreno-Anzúrez, Celic Sibel Sarmiento-Ramírez, Ana Silvia Gutiérrez-Román, Virginia Medina-Pérez, Luis Rafael Garibay-Castro, Elizabeth Rubio-Rodríguez and Gabriela Trejo-Tapia
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(6), 2544; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27062544 - 10 Mar 2026
Viewed by 355
Abstract
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) regulates plant metabolism. This study examined its effect on the biosynthesis of specialized metabolites in Baccharis conferta, a medicinal plant rich in phenolics and terpenes. Plants were elicited with 25 µM and 250 µM H [...] Read more.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) regulates plant metabolism. This study examined its effect on the biosynthesis of specialized metabolites in Baccharis conferta, a medicinal plant rich in phenolics and terpenes. Plants were elicited with 25 µM and 250 µM H2O2. Phenolic changes were evaluated by total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity, and LC-MS analysis of flavonoids and hydroxycinnamic acids. Meanwhile, terpene changes were evaluated by HPTLC, total terpene content (TTC), and expression of the 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase (Bco-DXS1) gene. H2O2 markedly modulated both pathways. Phenolic metabolism was activated, particularly under 25 µM H2O2, with PAL activity increasing by 52%, TPC by 42%, and TFC by 50% relative to the control. Chemical analysis revealed that five compounds, including chlorogenic acid, differed significantly across treatments. Gene expression analysis showed that 25 µM H2O2 upregulated Bco-DXS1 and increased TTC, whereas 250 µM H2O2 repressed gene expression but still enhanced terpene accumulation. Overall, these results suggest that moderate H2O2 levels function as a signaling molecule in B. conferta, simultaneously boosting phenolic and terpene pathways. This highlights controlled H2O2 elicitation as an effective biotechnological approach to increase the production of valuable metabolites in medicinal plant cultures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Metabolism and Natural Product Biosynthesis)
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26 pages, 1599 KB  
Article
Biological Potential of Methanol Extracts from Plants of the Genus Spiraea Spreading in Russia
by Anastasia Orlova, Alena Soboleva, Elena Tsvetkova, Svetlana Silinskaia, Yana L. Esaulkova, Tatiana N. Veklich, Vladimir V. Zarubaev, Anna A. Khakulova, Ilya R. Akberdin, Semyon K. Kolmykov, Vera A. Kostikova and Andrej Frolov
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(8), 3587; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26083587 - 10 Apr 2025
Viewed by 1643
Abstract
The genus Spiraea is well represented in the Russian flora. Several phytochemical and bioactivity studies, completed so far with several individual species of this genus, indicate young Spiraea shoots as a promising source of pharmaceutically and nutraceutically active natural products. Therefore, a broad-scale [...] Read more.
The genus Spiraea is well represented in the Russian flora. Several phytochemical and bioactivity studies, completed so far with several individual species of this genus, indicate young Spiraea shoots as a promising source of pharmaceutically and nutraceutically active natural products. Therefore, a broad-scale phytochemical analysis of shoot extracts from multiple Russian Spiraea species (i.e., profiling of secondary metabolites and assignment of their structures), complemented with comprehensive activity screening, might give access to valuable information on the structure–activity relationship (SAR) of their constituents. However, despite a lot of phytochemical and bioactivity information on individual species being available, these data are mostly fragmentary and do not allow for building a general picture, and in-depth comprehensive studies are still missing. Therefore, to fill this gap, here, we present a comprehensive metabolite profiling study accomplished with 15 of the most widely spread Russian Spiraea species, which was complemented with appropriate bioactivity screening of their first-year shoot alcoholic extracts. A chromatography–mass spectrometric (LC-MS) analysis revealed 33 major constituents of the shoot isolates, which were dominated by flavonoids (quercetin and kaempferol derivatives) and hydroxycinnamic acids (caffeic, ferulic, and coumaric acid derivatives). Their relative quantification indicated that most of the identified major components were distributed among all of the studied extracts with minimal overlap in their composition and relative abundance. The antioxidant activity screening revealed the high efficiency of all of the extracts as potential redox protectors, acting at the levels of radical scavenging (DPPH assay) and quenching cation radicals (TEAC assay) and superoxide anion radicals (NBT assay). Screening the antiviral and antimicrobial activity of the same extracts revealed significant antiviral activity at a concentration of 2 µg/mL, and high (MIC < 1 mg/mL) or moderate (1 mg/mL ≤ MIC ≤ 4 mg/mL) antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains. The structures responsible for the manifestation of the studied types of activity were tentatively assigned using a bioinformatics-based strategy. This analysis revealed the most bioactive Spiraea species that might be promising for further in-depth phytochemical analysis and evaluations of their structure–activity relationships (SARs). In this context, we consider S. humilis, which simultaneously showed antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antiviral activity; S. media, with marked antioxidant, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic properties; S. ussuriensis, a strong antioxidant and cytotoxic species; and S. trilobata, with a combination of antioxidant and antiviral properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Metabolism and Natural Product Biosynthesis)
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