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Metabolism, Genetics and Biodiversity in Wild Crops Relatives and Herbals
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Metabolism, Genetics and Biodiversity in Wild Crops Relatives and Herbals

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Physiology and Metabolism".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 9282

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vincenzo D’Amelia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, IBBR-CNR, Via Universita' 133, 80055 Portici, Naples, Italy
Interests: wild and cultivated solanaceae; plant derived drugs; genetic; genomic; plant specialized metabolites; metabolic engineering; plant breeding; plant functional biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Massimo Iorizzo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Horticultural Science and Plants for Human Health Institute, NC State University, Kannapolis, NC 28081, USA
Interests: fruit and vegetable genetics; genomics; quality traits; bioactives
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Teresa Docimo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, IBBR-CNR, Via Universita' 133, 80055 Portici, Naples, Italy
Interests: plant specialized metabolites biosynthetic pathways, their regulation and evolution
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wild crop relatives and herbal plants represent an important source of biodiversity for breeding since they harbor complex and large trait variability. This is particularly true for plant metabolites. Various studies have demonstrated that several genes encoding enzymes involved in biosynthetic pathways proliferated, duplicated, and specialized to a high degree in different lineages. The same applies for genes involved in regulating metabolite biosynthesis in a time and tissue specific fashion. These diversities have been crucial for plants to respond to different environmental constrains but also represents an important resource of metabolites for use in food products or other industrial applications. Recent technological advances in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics on plant metabolic diversity focused on cultivated crops, where a strong bottleneck in metabolic biodiversity is also present. Wild crop relatives and herbals represent powerful metabolic resources that can produce a diverse array of compounds still undiscovered and whose molecular control can be used to reconstruct evolutive diversification between plants, to improve crops, or to construct new pathways with the use of genetic engineering approaches.

This unlocked natural richness can draw the attention of several scientists: form biochemists to plant physiologists, from pharmacologists to biotechnologists and plant geneticists and even breeders, all aiming to produce novel and compelling results in their own research topic field. In this Special Issue, original data and review comments on the following topics are welcome:

  • Identification of genomic signatures in wild crop relatives and herbals for the production of specific specialized metabolites by using -omics (e.g., transcriptomic, genomic, proteomic) approaches;
  • Functional characterization of plant metabolic networks in wild crop relatives and herbals by using innovative genetic tools;
  • Synthetic biology approaches that exploit genetic diversity derived from wild crop relatives and herbals;
  • Innovative metabolic and genetic screening of wild plants to identify novel enzymes and regulatory genes underlying the production of noteworthy metabolites;
  • Metabolic engineering of plant pathways to demonstrate the versatility of plant metabolism and produce bioactive compounds for industry applications;
  • Studies on specific metabolites from wild crops that allow plants to increase the physiological tolerance to environmental constrains.

Dr. Vincenzo D’Amelia
Dr. Massimo Iorizzo
Dr. Teresa Docimo
Guest Editors

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.

Keywords

  • specialized metabolites
  • primary metabolism
  • alkaloids
  • phenolics
  • terpens
  • VOCs

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2254 KiB  
Article
Chemical Composition of Wild Collected and Cultivated Edible Plants (Sonchus oleraceus L. and Sonchus tenerrimus L.)
by M. Ángeles Botella, Pilar Hellín, Virginia Hernández, Mercedes Dabauza, Antonio Robledo, Alicia Sánchez, José Fenoll and Pilar Flores
Plants 2024, 13(2), 269; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13020269 - 17 Jan 2024
Viewed by 942
Abstract
The present work investigates the nutritional and bioactive composition, as well as the organoleptic and sensory properties, of S. oleraceus and S. tenerrimus, two wild plant species traditionally used in the gastronomy of the Mediterranean area. Additionally, the effect of cultivation on [...] Read more.
The present work investigates the nutritional and bioactive composition, as well as the organoleptic and sensory properties, of S. oleraceus and S. tenerrimus, two wild plant species traditionally used in the gastronomy of the Mediterranean area. Additionally, the effect of cultivation on leaf composition was assessed to explore their potential for large-scale production and commercialization from the point of view of possible losses or gains in quality. Both species were characterized as a good source of bioactive compounds, such as vitamins, pro-vitamins and carotenoids, with health-promoting and antioxidant properties that are highly appreciated. The sensory profile revealed a good general acceptance of S. oleraceus and S. tenerrimus, indicating that they could be included in the diet. Although the cultivation of S. oleraceus resulted in a decrease in the concentration of phenolic compounds when compared to wild-harvested plants, the opposite occurred for vitamin C. In S. tenerrimus, cultivation also increased the concentration of other compounds with important nutritional and healthy properties, such as sugars, organic acids and β-carotene. The results of the composition, organoleptic and sensory properties of S. oleraceus and S. tenerrimus support the idea of their potential to be used as edible leafy vegetables and as promising assets for functional foods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolism, Genetics and Biodiversity in Wild Crops Relatives and Herbals)
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19 pages, 3133 KiB  
Article
Choose Wisely: Great Variation among Genotypes of Promising Paludiculture Crop Phragmites australis
by Kerstin Haldan, Kristina Kuprina, Meike Ingeborg Haase, Fabian Kieckhäfer, Lisa Schade, Joraine Schmoldt, Lina Stella Schock, Marthe Stein, Alexander Wille, Martin Schnittler, Manuela Bog and Jürgen Kreyling
Plants 2023, 12(5), 1045; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12051045 - 24 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1393
Abstract
Measures mitigating the climate crisis, such as paludiculture, which is the agriculture on rewetted peatlands, are urgently needed. The cosmopolitan species Phragmites australis has the potential to be used in paludiculture worldwide but is known for its high intraspecific variation. This raises the [...] Read more.
Measures mitigating the climate crisis, such as paludiculture, which is the agriculture on rewetted peatlands, are urgently needed. The cosmopolitan species Phragmites australis has the potential to be used in paludiculture worldwide but is known for its high intraspecific variation. This raises the questions of whether (i) P. australis genotypes differ even at a regional scale, making them differently well suited for paludiculture and (ii) P. australis performance can be predicted by linking the variation in genotypes to strategies in the plant economics spectrum. Five P. australis genotypes from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were cultivated in two 10-month mesocosm experiments along gradients of water level and nutrient addition. We compared growth, morphology (height, growing density), above- and belowground biomass, functional and ecophysiological traits (SLA, LDMC, SRL, RDMC, root porosity, photosynthetic rate) as well as gene expression. Our results demonstrate a high variability of P. australis genotypes even at a regional scale, revealing genotype-specific productivity, morphology, and gene expression and implying that the selection of suitable genotypes will be crucial for the success of a paludiculture. However, trait covariation did not indicate distinct plant economic strategies to predict genotype performance. Instead, large-scale genotype trials are needed to select suitable genotypes for paludiculture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolism, Genetics and Biodiversity in Wild Crops Relatives and Herbals)
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17 pages, 1645 KiB  
Article
Metabolic Profiles, Genetic Diversity, and Genome Size of Bulgarian Population of Alkanna tinctoria
by Milena Nikolova, Ina Aneva, Petar Zhelev, Ivanka Semerdjieva, Valtcho D. Zheljazkov, Vladimir Vladimirov, Stoyan Stoyanov, Strahil Berkov and Elina Yankova-Tsvetkova
Plants 2023, 12(1), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12010111 - 26 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1902
Abstract
Alkanna tinctoria (L.) Tausch Boraginaceae is a medicinal plant whose root is used for its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. A. tinctoria roots have been subject to numerous studies. However, the aerial parts have been explored less. The objective of the present study was [...] Read more.
Alkanna tinctoria (L.) Tausch Boraginaceae is a medicinal plant whose root is used for its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. A. tinctoria roots have been subject to numerous studies. However, the aerial parts have been explored less. The objective of the present study was to compare the chemical profile of aerial parts and roots as well as the total alkannin content in roots of 11 populations of the species from different floristic regions of Bulgaria. Methanolic extracts from 22 samples were analyzed by GC/MS. Phenolic, fatty, and organic acids, sterols, polyols, fatty alcohols, and sugars were identified. Ononitol (4-O-methyl-myo-inositol) was found as the main compound in the aerial parts. The total alkannin content in the roots was evaluated by the spectrophotometric method and compared with that of the commercial product. Populations with high alkannin content and rich in other bioactive compounds were identified. A relatively low genetic diversity in the studied populations was observed. The present study is the first comprehensive study on metabolite profiles and genetic diversity of the Bulgarian populations of A. tinctoria. The occurrence of ononitol in the aerial parts of the species is reported for the first time, as well as the phenolic acid profiles of the species in both aerial parts and roots. The results showed that aerial parts of the plant are also promising for use as a source of valuable biologically active substances. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolism, Genetics and Biodiversity in Wild Crops Relatives and Herbals)
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Review

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22 pages, 1332 KiB  
Review
Glucosinolates and Omega-3 Fatty Acids from Mustard Seeds: Phytochemistry and Pharmacology
by Gitishree Das, Ourlad Alzeus G. Tantengco, Rosa Tundis, Joyce Ann H. Robles, Monica Rosa Loizzo, Han Seung Shin and Jayanta Kumar Patra
Plants 2022, 11(17), 2290; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11172290 - 01 Sep 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3480
Abstract
Seeds from mustard (genera Brassica spp. and Sinapsis spp.), are known as a rich source of glucosinolates and omega-3 fatty acids. These compounds are widely known for their health benefits that include reducing inflammation and lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. [...] Read more.
Seeds from mustard (genera Brassica spp. and Sinapsis spp.), are known as a rich source of glucosinolates and omega-3 fatty acids. These compounds are widely known for their health benefits that include reducing inflammation and lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. This review presented a synthesis of published literature from Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Sci Finder, and Web of Science regarding the different glucosinolates and omega-3 fatty acids isolated from mustard seeds. We presented an overview of extraction, isolation, purification, and structure elucidation of glucosinolates from the seeds of mustard plants. Moreover, we presented a compilation of in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies showing the potential health benefits of glucosinolates and omega-3 fatty acids. Previous studies showed that glucosinolates have antimicrobial, antipain, and anticancer properties while omega-3 fatty acids are useful for their pharmacologic effects against sleep disorders, anxiety, cerebrovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes. Further studies are needed to investigate other naturally occurring glucosinolates and omega-3 fatty acids, improve and standardize the extraction and isolation methods from mustard seeds, and obtain more clinical evidence on the pharmacological applications of glucosinolates and omega-3 fatty acids from mustard seeds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolism, Genetics and Biodiversity in Wild Crops Relatives and Herbals)
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