Multi-Omics Insights into Stress-Induced Metabolism of Bioactive Plant Compounds
A special issue of Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Metabolism".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2026 | Viewed by 995
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Fritillaria cirrhosa; bioactive compounds; transcriptomic and metabolomic approaches; molecular plant breeding; fruit extracts
Interests: functional metabolomics; natural products chemistry; traditional Chinese medicines; bioinformatics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plants are continuously challenged by a wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses, including temperature extremes, ultraviolet radiation, drought, salinity, heavy metal exposure, and pathogen attack. These environmental pressures profoundly reshape plant metabolic processes, often triggering the reprogramming of specialized metabolism and the accumulation of bioactive compounds. Such stress-induced metabolic responses not only contribute to plant survival and adaptation but also critically influence the chemical composition, bioactivity, and therapeutic potential of medicinal and functional plants.
With the rapid advancement of high-throughput sequencing and analytical technologies, multi-omics approaches have become indispensable tools for elucidating the complex regulatory mechanisms underlying plant metabolic plasticity. Integrative analyses combining genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and epigenomics now enable systems-level dissection of metabolic pathways, gene–metabolite associations, and regulatory networks that govern stress-responsive metabolism.
This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive forum for cutting-edge research on stress-induced metabolism of bioactive plant compounds, with particular emphasis on comparative metabolomics, multi-omics integration, and network-based analyses. Contributions focusing on medicinal plants and functional crops are especially encouraged, including studies that link stress-driven metabolic changes with biological activities and therapeutic relevance through network pharmacology and systems biology approaches.
Climate change and environmental degradation are intensifying stress conditions for plants worldwide, posing serious threats to crop productivity and medicinal plant quality. Understanding how stress reshapes plant metabolism and bioactivity is therefore essential for the sustainable utilization of plant resources, quality control of herbal medicines, and the development of stress-resilient plant materials.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Stress-induced reprogramming of plant primary and secondary metabolism;
- Comparative metabolomics across species, genotypes, or environmental gradients;
- Multi-omics integration in plant stress biology;
- Regulation of bioactive phytochemicals under biotic and abiotic stresses;
- Gene–metabolite and metabolic regulatory network analysis;
- Network pharmacology linking plant metabolites to biological and therapeutic activities;
- Medicinal plant metabolism and quality formation under environmental stress;
- Systems biology approaches to plant adaptation and resilience;
- Discovery of stress-responsive metabolites with pharmacological potential.
Dr. Dan Gao
Prof. Dr. Junsong Wang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- stress-induced metabolism
- plant secondary metabolites
- bioactive phytochemicals
- medicinal plant compounds
- multi-omics integration
- comparative metabolomics
- plant stress biology
- metabolic and regulatory networks
- network pharmacology
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