Metabolomics in Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Plant metabolomics is an emerging and rapidly expanding field within metabolomics. It involves the comprehensive study of small molecules in plant systems biology, providing a biochemical snapshot of active metabolites that reflects plant physiological status. Plant metabolomics is a powerful approach for mapping metabolite changes that correspond to functional alterations in plants arising from genetic variation, developmental stages, or environmental conditions.

This approach has broad applicability across diverse research areas, including agriculture, algae, yeast, biofuel research, environmental sciences, and marine biology. Despite its growing importance, plant metabolomics faces significant challenges due to the vast chemical diversity of plant metabolites, encompassing both primary and secondary metabolites. Consequently, there is a strong need for continued methodological development and high‑quality research contributions in this field.

Plant metabolites play essential roles in cellular signalling, defence mechanisms, and responses to environmental stresses such as drought and salinity. In addition, plant metabolomics has become a key strategy for the discovery and characterisation of natural products, many of which hold significant pharmacological and nutritional value.

This Topic is dedicated to advancing research in plant metabolomics and lipidomics, with a particular emphasis on studies addressing analytical challenges, data processing, and pathway mapping. Establishing a dedicated platform for plant metabolomics will support the dissemination of innovative research, and we look forward to receiving high‑quality contributions from the scientific community.

Dr. Thusitha W. Rupasinghe
Dr. Priyanka Reddy
Topic Editors