Plant Hairy Root Culture

Dear Colleagues,

Plants are one of the vital sources of secondary metabolites. These secondary metabolites have diverse roles in human welfare, including therapeutic implication. Nevertheless, secondary metabolite yields obtained through the exploitation of natural plant populations are insufficient to meet the commercial demand due to their accumulation in low volumes. In addition, in-planta synthesis of these important metabolites is directly linked with the age, growing conditions, and species of the plant. Such limitations have paved the way for the exploration of alternative production methodologies. Therefore, biotechnological approaches using plant in vitro systems offer an appealing alternative for the production of biologically active metabolites. Hairy root cultures, induced after the interaction of plants with Agrobacterium rhizogenes are a practical solution for producing valuable secondary metabolite at low cost and without the influence of seasonal, geographic, or climatic variations. With their fast growth, being free from pathogen and herbicide contamination, genetic stability, and autotrophic nature for plant hormones, hairy roots are considered useful bioproduction systems for specialized metabolites. Currently, hairy roots of many plant species can be considered not only an efficient tool for production of phytochemicals but also as suitable experimental models for investigations on regulatory mechanisms of plant metabolism. This Special Issue, titled “Plant Hairy Root culture,” aims to showcase the latest advancements and emerging directions in plant biology. It seeks to provide a comprehensive platform for cutting-edge research, fostering a deeper understanding of plant secondary metabolism and informing future metabolic engineering efforts.

We encourage submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics on different aspects of yield enhancements strategies in plant hairy root culture like precursor feeding, elicitation, metabolic pathway engineering approaches like overexpression and silencing of pathway genes, transcription factors, epigenetic factors, CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome editing, induction of composite plants, multi-omics approaches, nanotechnology, adoption of machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) for scaled up metabolite production in bioreactor systems for pharmaceutical, recombinant proteins (such as vaccines, antibodies, antibody derivatives, and pharmaceutical proteins), cosmetics, phytoremediation, and food sectors etc.

We invite original research articles, reviews, and short communications that deliver novel insights into the molecular and physiological dimensions of plant hairy root culture. Contributions that bridge fundamental discoveries with applications in plant biotechnology-based secondary metabolism.

We look forward to your valuable contributions to this exciting Special Issue.

Dr. Shamim M. Ahsan
Dr. Md Mahmudul Hassan
Dr. Hyong Woo Choi
Guest Editors

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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). 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.

• Hairy Root culture
• Elicitation
• Metabolic engineering
• Multi-omics approaches
• Nanotechnology
• Phytoremediation
• Plant secondary metabolism
• Bioreactor system
• Artificial intelligence