Recent Progress in Exploring Plant Metabolic Pathways: Unraveling the Complexity of Plant Biochemistry
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Physiology and Metabolism".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2026 | Viewed by 53
Special Issue Editors
Interests: secondary metabolites; genetics; plant metabolism; plant biochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: genetic improvement of blueberries; microRNA technologies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce a Special Issue of Plants titled "Recent Progress in Exploring Plant Metabolic Pathways: Unraveling the Complexity of Plant Biochemistry". This collection aims to highlight recent advances in our understanding of plant metabolic networks and their roles in growth, development, stress responses, and evolutionary adaptation.
We welcome original research articles and reviews that offer novel insights into the structure, function, regulation, and evolution of metabolic pathways in plants. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following.
- Primary Metabolism: Studies exploring central metabolic pathways such as glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and the pentose phosphate pathway, including research on regulatory mechanisms, enzyme functions, and the influence of primary metabolism on plant physiology.
- Specialized Metabolism and Structural Biosynthesis: Research on the biosynthesis and regulation of secondary metabolites and structural compounds, including those involved in defense, signaling, or the formation of plant cell walls. We encourage contributions that examine metabolic integration and functional diversity in these pathways.
- Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology: Submissions focusing on the modification or reconstruction of metabolic networks to improve crop traits, enhance metabolite production, or increase environmental resilience, including computational modeling and pathway optimization.
- Environmental and Developmental Regulation of Metabolism: Articles addressing how metabolic processes are influenced by abiotic stress, biotic interactions, or developmental cues, with an emphasis on adaptive responses and regulatory mechanisms at the molecular and genetic levels.
- Gene Family Evolution and Functional Innovation: We welcome studies investigating the evolution and diversification of gene families involved in metabolic regulation, signal transduction, or stress adaptation. Emphasis may be placed on comparative genomics, functional characterization, and evolutionary mechanisms driving metabolic innovation.
- Systems Biology and Multi-Omics Integration: Contributions that utilize metabolomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and integrative approaches to provide system-level insights into plant metabolism and its regulation.
This Special Issue provides a platform on which to share recent discoveries, emerging tools, and conceptual advances that contribute to a deeper understanding of plant metabolic complexity. We believe it will be a valuable resource for researchers working across plant biology, biotechnology, and systems science.
Dr. Ting Lan
Prof. Dr. Guiliang Tang
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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.
Keywords
- plant metabolism
- metabolic pathways
- primary metabolism
- secondary metabolism
- metabolic engineering
- gene family evolution
- abiotic and biotic stress
- plant biochemistry
- systems biology
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