Biosynthesis and Function of Plant Specialized Metabolites
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 29741
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plants synthesize an extremely large array of small molecules. The large majority of plant compounds are not essential for life-sustaining processes, such as energy acquisition or photosynthesis. They were for a long time referred to as “secondary” metabolites. The overwhelming structural diversity in secondary metabolites found throughout the plant kingdom results from their strong taxonomic restriction, and from the specificity within species to certain cell types, developmental stages or environmental stimuli. Therefore these compounds are now referred to as specialized metabolites. They are also no longer considered “secondary”, as their role in plant physiology and in the interaction with the biotic and abiotic environment is difficult to overestimate. The diversity among specialized metabolites evolved through adaptations to ever-changing challenges of the environment and often led to large biosynthetic multigene families. The specific role of many secondary metabolism biosynthesis enzymes remains to be characterized and the regular discovery of new enzymes shows how incomplete our knowledge of the pathways remains. Likewise, the high rate of discovery of new plant secondary metabolites, induced by the recent developments in metabolomics, shows the limitations of our current understanding of the plant secondary metabolome and it’s functioning. For most known secondary metabolites the specific role in physiological processes or in the resistance to stress conditions has not been established. However, due to their biological activity, color, odor, or other commercially or pharmaceutically exploitable characteristics, there is notable interest in enhancing the production of plant specialized metabolites through biotechnological approaches. Metabolic engineering can benefit from a profound knowledge of the biosynthetic pathways. This Special Issue will be dedicated to the study of both the biosynthesis and the role of plant specialized metabolites.
Topics of interest include:
- functional characterization of biosynthetic enzymes;
- flux analysis through biosynthesis pathways;
- functional characterization of specialized metabolites in physiological processes or in the interaction with the environment;
- studies of the modulation of the specialized metabolome in function of endogenous or exogenous stimuli;
- metabolic engineering.
Original research papers and reviews related to these items will be considered for publication.
Dr. Rebecca Dauwe
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- plant specialized metabolites
- biosynthesis enzymes
- biosynthesis pathways
- metabolic engineering
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