Biosynthetic Pathways and Molecular Regulatory Mechanisms of Active Ingredients in Medicinal Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Medicinal plants are an important resource for humans. However, compared with model systems and crops, the number of studies on medicinal plants has fallen far behind the amount of research on other topics. Recently, with the increase in demand for medicinal plants and the development and application of high-throughput technologies, the research field of medicinal plants has rapidly expanded. Significant progress has been made in genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics of medicinal plants. Numerous studies have contributed to the biosynthetic pathway of active Ingredients, genes encoding key enzymes of the pathway, and regulatory mechanisms of active ingredients. This enables the production of secondary metabolites through metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Moreover, novel technologies and strategies are being developed and applied to this research field. This open-access Special Issue of Plants is devoted to publishing original research and review articles on medicinal plant studies, highlighting recent advances in the biosynthesis and regulatory mechanisms of active ingredients, particularly significant discoveries from intensive studies, and the development and application of novel technologies. This Special Issue aims to provide an accessible collection of research that shares the latest innovative results from the research field of medicinal plants to aid further studies on secondary metabolism, medicinal plant improvement, and the production of functionally important secondary metabolites.

Topics of this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, protomics and metabolomics of medicinal plants;
• Biosynthetic pathway of secondary metabolites;
• Key enzyme genes involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites;
• Transcription factors and regulatory networks in medicinal plants;
• Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology of active ingredients;
• Application of high-throughput sequencing technologies;
• Databases associated with the biosynthesis and regulation of active ingredients;
• Novel technologies and strategies for secondary metabolism studies.

Dr. Qi Tang
Dr. Zhixing Qing
Guest Editors

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• medicinal plants
• biosynthetic pathway
• molecular regulatory mechanisms
• gene annotation
• transcription factor
• high-throughput sequencing
• metabolic engineering
• secondary metabolites
• gene editing
• multi-omics
• genome, transcriptome and proteome metabolomics
• synthetic biology
• metabolic analysis
• metabolic outline