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Plants
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Plant Tissue Culture and Secondary Metabolites Production, Third Edition
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Plant Tissue Culture and Secondary Metabolites Production, Third Edition

A Special Issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747) belonging to the section "Plant Cell Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 2731

Editors

Dr. Kalina Danova

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Guest Editor
Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: plant cell tissue and organ culture; medicinal and aromatic plants; conservation; secondary metabolites production; pharmacognosy; plant physiology; plant growth regulators
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Laura Pistelli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, Food and Agro-Environment, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, PI, Italy
Interests: plant physiology and biochemistry; abiotic stress; tissue culture; hairy roots; bioactive compounds; medicinal plants; food quality; in vitro secondary metabolites production; antioxidants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ilaria Marchioni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, CREA, Via dei Fiori 8, 51017 Pescia, PT, Italy
Interests: edible flowers; ornamental plants; postharvest; plant physiology; bioactive compounds; volatile organic compounds; in vitro tissue culture and plant propagation; nutraceuticals; functional food
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The journal Plants will jointly be publishing a Special Issue on “Plant Tissue Culture and Secondary Metabolites Production, Third Edition”.

Plant cell tissue and organ culture is an indispensable fundamental technique, complementary to conventional plant breeding, for optimized large-scale clonal propagation, germplasm conservation, somatic embryogenesis, and disease elimination in plantlets. In addition to these applications, this technique has been intensively utilized in recent decades for plants that are important from a phytochemical perspective for the biotechnological delivery of pharmacologically relevant secondary metabolites. The latter is of exceptional importance for species that are threatened in their indigenous habitats. Thus, the use of in vitro culture is a sustainable additive approach to traditional methods of propagation. Furthermore, in vitro culture represents a suitable method for developing the controlled production of valuable natural metabolites in controlled laboratory conditions, without affecting the plants’ natural habitats.

This Special Issue aims to integrate the various aspects of plant cell tissue and organ culture, with a special emphasis on the production of phytochemical compounds, which are valuable due to their therapeutic properties—e.g., antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory.

Secondary metabolites play a crucial role in the diverse defense mechanisms of the plant organism in response to environmental stimuli, including climatic fluctuations, pathogenic organisms, predatory herbivores, and competing plants. Therefore, by providing the opportunity for controlled modification of environmental conditions, in vitro culture is a well-manageable experimental system that can be utilized as a source of secondary metabolite delivery for industrial applications, as well as for food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical purposes.

This Special Issue will highlight the modern use of various plant cell and organ culture approaches for the successful production of plant secondary metabolites, especially those with high economic value.

Dr. Kalina Danova
Dr. Laura Pistelli
Dr. Ilaria Marchioni
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-anonymized 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

  • clonal propagation
  • adventitious regeneration/somatic embryogenesis
  • disease-free plant production
  • production of phytochemicals by in vitro cultures
  • bioactive compounds
  • virus-free plants
  • cell suspension culture
  • hairy root culture
  • biopesticides
  • bioreactor

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 1827 KB  
Article
Species-Specific Metabolic Identities Persist in Fabaceae Callus Cultures Under Standardized Culture Conditions
by Salma Halime, Sylvain Legay, Jenny Renaut, Cédric Jacquard and Kjell Sergeant
Plants 2026, 15(15), 2299; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15152299 - 27 Jul 2026
Viewed by 339
Abstract
Callus cultures derived from three species of Fabaceae were compared under identical hormonal conditions using untargeted UHPLC–MS/MS metabolomics together with phenotypic and antioxidant capacity analyses. Principal component analysis with 290 metabolites revealed species identity as the dominant determinant of the metabolic profile, indicating [...] Read more.
Callus cultures derived from three species of Fabaceae were compared under identical hormonal conditions using untargeted UHPLC–MS/MS metabolomics together with phenotypic and antioxidant capacity analyses. Principal component analysis with 290 metabolites revealed species identity as the dominant determinant of the metabolic profile, indicating that species-associated metabolic signatures persist in dedifferentiated tissues. Soybean calli accumulated saponins, primarily soyasapogenol derivatives. Lupin calli were characterized by diverse isoflavones detected as aglycones, glycosylated and malonylated conjugates. Calli from the pea cultivar Karacter were dominated by hydroxycinnamate derivatives: coumaroyl methylhexose, feruloyl-coumaroyl glycoside derivatives, and caffeoyl amino acid conjugates. Within each species, the calli metabolomes were furthermore influenced by genotype, explant origin, and independent callus line establishment. Antioxidant capacity correlated with metabolite subclass composition rather than total metabolite abundance, with polyphenol-rich profiles displaying higher reducing potential than saponin-dominated metabolomes. Together, these findings provide the first systematic comparative evidence that species-specific metabolic signatures are maintained in Fabaceae callus cultures, while remaining quantitatively modulated by genotype, explant origin, and somaclonal variation. Soybean, lupin, and pea callus cultures thus provide tractable model systems for the species-specific study of respectively triterpenoid saponin, isoflavonoids, and hydroxycinnamate metabolism, offering a foundation for future biotechnological development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Tissue Culture and Secondary Metabolites Production, Third Edition)
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21 pages, 7583 KB  
Article
Antioxidant Activities and Lipid Accumulation-Inhibitory Effects of Seed and Callus Extracts of Impatiens balsamina L.
by Ye-Eun Ha, Ga-Ram Yu, Hyuck Kim, Dong-Woo Lim and Jai-Eun Kim
Plants 2026, 15(11), 1716; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15111716 - 1 Jun 2026
Viewed by 1094
Abstract
The seeds of Impatiens balsamina L. have been traditionally used in East Asian medicine and are known to contain bioactive compounds with antioxidant properties. However, studies focusing on seed-derived callus remain limited. This study aimed to comparatively evaluate the antioxidant activities and lipid [...] Read more.
The seeds of Impatiens balsamina L. have been traditionally used in East Asian medicine and are known to contain bioactive compounds with antioxidant properties. However, studies focusing on seed-derived callus remain limited. This study aimed to comparatively evaluate the antioxidant activities and lipid accumulation-inhibitory effects of 70% ethanol extracts from seeds (IB) and seed-derived callus (IBC) of I. balsamina. Callus was induced on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Antioxidant activities were evaluated using DPPH radical scavenging, superoxide anion scavenging, deoxyribose-based hydroxyl radical scavenging, DNA nicking, lipid peroxidation, and relative electrophoretic mobility (REM) assays, along with the determination of total phenolic, flavonoid, and tannin contents. Cell viability and lipid accumulation were assessed in FFA-treated HepG2 cells. In silico network and transcription factor (TF) enrichment analyses were performed to explore underlying mechanisms. Callus induction was most effective at 1 mg/L 2,4-D. Both IB and IBC exhibited antioxidant activities across all assays, with IB showing higher activity and greater phytochemical content than IBC. Both extracts reduced lipid accumulation in FFA-treated HepG2 cells at non-cytotoxic concentrations. Network analysis identified enrichment in pathways related to oxidative stress, inflammation, and lipid metabolism, and TF enrichment analysis identified NFKB1 and ATF3 as major upstream regulators. Both IB and IBC exhibited antioxidant activities across multiple in vitro assays, with IB showing higher activity attributable to its more complex phytochemical content. The lipid accumulation-inhibitory effects observed in FFA-treated HepG2 cells suggest a potential association between antioxidant capacity and lipid regulation, although the underlying mechanisms remain to be experimentally validated. Seed-derived callus may serve as a useful in vitro model for studying plant-derived bioactive compounds, pending further optimization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Tissue Culture and Secondary Metabolites Production, Third Edition)
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29 pages, 6199 KB  
Article
Polyamine-Related Gene Families Identification and Regulatory Effects on Early Somatic Embryogenesis via Modulating Gene Expressions and Hormone Levels in Ginkgo biloba
by Jingjing Di, Wenyan Ge, Ying Chen, Yuchen Hu, Yichen Lu and Hao Cai
Plants 2026, 15(11), 1617; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15111617 - 25 May 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 573
Abstract
Polyamines (PAs) play critical roles in plant growth, somatic embryogenesis (SE), etc. Previous studies have demonstrated that exogenous PAs could promote SE in plants. However, the effects of PAs on Ginkgo biloba L. SE are still unknown, especially in the switch from the [...] Read more.
Polyamines (PAs) play critical roles in plant growth, somatic embryogenesis (SE), etc. Previous studies have demonstrated that exogenous PAs could promote SE in plants. However, the effects of PAs on Ginkgo biloba L. SE are still unknown, especially in the switch from the initial callus (IC) to the embryogenic callus (EC) stage or to the globular embryo (GE) stage. This work identified 34 genes involved in PAs metabolism in G. biloba using genome-wide analyses. These genes were clustered into six families and found to be unevenly distributed across 11 of the 12 chromosomes on the plant. These families contain 539 cis-acting elements that mainly respond to phytohormones, abiotic stress, meristem expression, etc. RNAseq analysis revealed that the expression of GbADC2, GbSAMDC2, GbSPMS1, GbCuAO1 and 3, and GbPAO3, 8, 6 and 13 genes in G. biloba were higher in the GE stage than in the IC stage. In addition, 1.0 mg·L−1 spermine (Spm3) could promote the conversion of IC to EC, while 0.01 mg·L−1 putrescine (Put1) could facilitate the transition from IC to EC and then to GE. During the conversion of IC to EC or to GE, higher levels of abscisic acid (ABA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD) and lower levels of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), gibberellin (GA3), and zeatin (ZT) were observed; concurrently, the H2O2 level was also observed to be high. Gene expressions of GbSPMS2, GbCuAO3, and GbPAO6 and 8 were upregulated, while GbADC2 expression was downregulated in the EC or GE stages under Spm3- or Put1- treatment. These results illustrate that exogenous PAs might alter the levels of the endogenous polyamine pool and lead to H2O2 production, which caused a certain oxidative stress. However, SOD and POD balanced H2O2 production and maintained homeostasis. The PAs–H2O2–ABA module might coordinate the regulation of early in of G. biloba. These relations were discussed in this work. These findings provide a foundation for comprehending the roles of PAs gene families in the key nodes of early SE in G. biloba. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Tissue Culture and Secondary Metabolites Production, Third Edition)
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