Plant In Vitro Systems as an Effective Tool for In Vivo Biocatalysis of Bioactive Natural Products

Dear Colleagues,

Medicinal plants accumulates a huge diversity of bioactive natural products (NPs) and are exploited since time immemorial owing to health benefits they offer. Plant cells are smart small factories able to synthesize an exceptional variety of commercially important NPs used as flavors, dyes, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, etc. However, total synthesis of all these bioactive NPs is not always scientifically and/or commercially feasible due to complex and/or specific stereochemical structures. Lack of cultivation practices and over-harvesting from wild is also challenging and provoke scientists to establish alternate platforms for the reliable and consistent production of some bioactive NPs to avoid shortage issues. Nowadays, the use of plant in vitro culture systems provides us a promising platform for the production of bioactive NPs. The emergence of omics technologies have revolutionized the field of NPs (bio)synthesis, and metabolic engineering and synthetic biology strategies are now expanding horizons offer for the production of bioactive NPs through in vivo biocatalysis using plant cells. Indeed, in plant cells, robust and efficient in vivo (bio)catalytic reactions involving multi‐step enzymatic cascades can operate simultaneously in an (enantio)selective, sustainable and eco-friendly way, thus allowing the production of both natural and new-to-nature complex chemicals that cannot be obtained by current chemical processes. 

Here, we encourage investigators to consider submitting reviews, regular research papers and short communications focusing on the different aspects of this emerging field of Plant in vitro systems as an effective tool for in vivo biocatalysis of bioactive natural products to this Special Issue of Molecules with the aim to highlight the most novel and promising developments.

Dr. Christophe Hano
Dr. Bilal Haider Abbasi
Guest Editors

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