Molecular Mechanism and Regulation of Secondary Metabolites Biosynthesis in Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Plant secondary metabolites are important sources for pharmaceuticals, food additives, flavors, and other industrial materials. However, compared with plant primary metabolites, the number of studies on plant secondary metabolites has fallen far behind. Recently, with the increase in demand for plant secondary metabolites and the development and application of high-throughput technologies, the research field of plant secondary metabolites has rapidly expanded. Significant progress has been made in finding the biosynthetic pathway of secondary metabolites, key enzymes of the pathway, and regulatory mechanisms of secondary metabolism. This enables the production of secondary metabolites through new technologies such as synthetic biology. Moreover, novel strategies are being applied to this research field. This open access Special Issue of Plants is devoted to publishing original research and review articles on studies of the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, highlighting recent advances in molecular mechanisms and regulation of the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in plants, particularly new discoveries 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 plants to aid further studies on secondary metabolism, plant improvement, and the production of important secondary metabolites.

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

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

Dr. Deyou Qiu
Guest Editor

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. 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.

• secondary metabolites
• biosynthetic pathway
• functional characterization of gene and enzyme
• epigenetic regulation
• high-throughput sequencing
• metabolic engineering
• synthetic biology
• transcription factor
• medicinal plants
• molecular regulatory mechanisms
• genome editing
• multi-omics
• AI