Editorial: Biosynthesis, purification, characterization and uses of natural compounds in plants

COPYRIGHT © 2023 Butnariu and Tietel. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. TYPE Editorial PUBLISHED 06 July 2023 DOI 10.3389/fpls.2023.1162676

advanced SPE-LC-MS/MS chromatographic method for D. officinale analysis, used to thoroughly profiling plant extracts. A special emphasis was given to alkaloids, describing their chemical structures and main characteristic fragments. In addition, they showed that methyl jasmonate elicits SM biosynthesis in D. officinale through defense-related gene expression. Plant's profile and particular methods will facilitate its utilization for nutritional and medicinal purposes.
Essential oils (EO) are complex mixtures of volatile SM, often possessing powerful bioactivities, such as antioxidant properties, hepatoprotective effects, and the ability to promote wound healing (Mohammed et al., 2021;. Recently, an aamylase inhibition and antibacterial bioactivities were reported for Sabina chinensis leaf EO (Gu et al., 2018). The work by Zhang et al. optimized the extraction process, assessing S. chinensis largely unknown chemical composition by GC-MS and showing mainly terpenes as the main constituents, with in-year composition variability. In addition, they established its reported antifungal activity against two Fusarium species. By employing OPLS-DA, the authors identified specific compounds ascribed for the antifungal bioactivity, thereby expanding our knowledge of its potential as a broad-spectrum antifungal agent with widespread applications.
Cuticular waxes, which consist of a mixture of alkanes and fatty esters, constitute leaf's primary protective barrier against environmental stresses, playing an essential role in stress response and consequently influenced by it (Lewandowska et al., 2020). Speckert et al. addressed the open question of trees' wax biosynthesis regulation in response to environmental conditions. They investigated the ongoing formation of wax constituents by conducting a 13 CO2 pulse-chase labelling of sun-exposed vs. shaded branches of a mature beech tree during the late summer. Showing an ongoing fatty acid and SM de-novo biosynthesis, their results strongly suggest that trees adjust their lipid production and composition for acclimating to micro-environmental changes. These findings imply trees' ability to adjust their wax production to varying environmental conditions, also providing valuable hints regarding resource allocation.
Prenylated chalcones have recently gained recognition as potent food components and dietary supplements, offering substantial health benefits, e.g., in cancer prevention and treatment (Venturelli et al., 2016). Membrane-bound prenyltransferases (PT) are involved in their biosynthesis from chalcones, which encouraged Guo et al. to attempted to construct the heterologous biosynthetic pathway of isobavachalcone in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). Isobavachalcone biosynthesis was successfully achieved using tobacco transient expression with exogenous isoliquiritigenin as a substrate, with Humulus lupulus (HL) and Sophora flavescens (SF) PT homologs. Furthermore, de novo biosynthesis of isobavachalcone in transgenic tobacco lines was accomplished via Glycine max genes generating endogenous isoliquiritigenin, with SF PT on the multigene vector. This work emphasizes the current need of leveraging plant metabolism to elegantly produce potent pharmaceuticals.
Rice (Oryza sativa) is the world's most important food crop, and hence its grain yield of major significance. The work by Um et al. sheds light over the reciprocal relationship between actinrelated proteins and gibberellic acid (GA) signaling and biosynthesis, both being key factors affecting growth and productivity. Plant height and growth were diminished by an O. sativa GA dwarf gene knockout, due to low levels its actin-related protein, as well as GA. GA application restored plant height. Overexpression of that gene also resulted in normal phenotype. This work's novelty lies in determining the central role of O. sativa GA dwarf gene in cell development and expression of elongationrelated genes, also revealing the inter-relations with GA homeostasis, hence regulating plant development.

Author contributions
MB-conceptualization, first draft writing, and advanced draft editing. ZT-conceptualization and advanced draft editing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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