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Biosynthesis and Regulatory Mechanism of Secondary Metabolites in Medicinal Plants 2.0

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 803

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100193, China
Interests: medicinal plant; bioactive compound; biosynthetic pathway; noncoding RNA; transcription factor; genome; transcriptome; metabolome
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

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 conducted 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 the genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics of medicinal plants. Numerous studies have contributed to the biosynthetic pathway of secondary metabolites, genes encoding key enzymes of the pathway, and the regulatory mechanisms of secondary metabolism. 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 IJMS is devoted to publishing original research and review articles on medicinal plant studies, highlighting the recent advances in the biosynthesis and regulatory mechanisms of secondary metabolites, particularly the 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:

  • The genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics of medicinal plants;
  • The biosynthetic pathway of secondary metabolites;
  • Key enzyme genes involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites;
  • The epigenetic regulation of secondary metabolism: microRNA, long noncoding RNA, DNA methylation, RNA methylation, etc.;
  • Transcription factor and regulatory network in medicinal plants;
  • The metabolic engineering and synthetic biology of secondary metabolites;
  • The application of high-throughput sequencing technologies;
  • Databases associated with the biosynthesis and regulation of secondary metabolites;
  • Novel technologies and strategies for secondary metabolism studies.

Prof. Dr. Shanfa Lu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • biosynthetic pathway
  • epigenetic regulation
  • high-throughput sequencing
  • medicinal plant
  • metabolic engineering
  • omics
  • regulatory mechanism
  • secondary metabolite
  • synthetic biology
  • transcription factor

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 5791 KiB  
Article
Functional Identification of HhUGT74AG11—A Key Glycosyltransferase Involved in Biosynthesis of Oleanane-Type Saponins in Hedera helix
by Han Yu, Jun Zhou, Jing Zhang, Xinyi He, Siqing Peng, Hao Ling, Zhuang Dong, Xiangyang Lu, Yun Tian, Guiping Guan, Qi Tang, Xiaohong Zhong and Yuedong He
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(7), 4067; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25074067 - 05 Apr 2024
Viewed by 620
Abstract
Hedera helix is a traditional medicinal plant. Its primary active ingredients are oleanane-type saponins, which have extensive pharmacological effects such as gastric mucosal protection, autophagy regulation actions, and antiviral properties. However, the glycosylation-modifying enzymes responsible for catalyzing oleanane-type saponin biosynthesis remain unidentified. Through [...] Read more.
Hedera helix is a traditional medicinal plant. Its primary active ingredients are oleanane-type saponins, which have extensive pharmacological effects such as gastric mucosal protection, autophagy regulation actions, and antiviral properties. However, the glycosylation-modifying enzymes responsible for catalyzing oleanane-type saponin biosynthesis remain unidentified. Through transcriptome, cluster analysis, and PSPG structural domain, this study preliminarily screened four candidate UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs), including Unigene26859, Unigene31717, CL11391.Contig2, and CL144.Contig9. In in vitro enzymatic reactions, it has been observed that Unigene26859 (HhUGT74AG11) has the ability to facilitate the conversion of oleanolic acid, resulting in the production of oleanolic acid 28-O-glucopyranosyl ester. Moreover, HhUGT74AG11 exhibits extensive substrate hybridity and specific stereoselectivity and can transfer glycosyl donors to the C-28 site of various oleanane-type triterpenoids (hederagenin and calenduloside E) and the C-7 site of flavonoids (tectorigenin). Cluster analysis found that HhUGT74AG11 is clustered together with functionally identified genes AeUGT74AG6, CaUGT74AG2, and PgUGT74AE2, further verifying the possible reason for HhUGT74AG11 catalyzing substrate generalization. In this study, a novel glycosyltransferase, HhUGT74AG11, was characterized that plays a role in oleanane-type saponins biosynthesis in H. helix, providing a theoretical basis for the production of rare and valuable triterpenoid saponins. Full article
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