As green chemical factories, medicinal plants contain a wide range of bioactive compounds crucial for biomaterial industries. Despite their high economic value, medicinal plants are in the last ring of domestication syndrome and have been neglected for many years by plant breeders.
In recent years, plant breeders have tried to compensate for these shortages by developing different breeding strategies, especially faster biotechnology-based breeding methods (BBBMs). Next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based forward genetic techniques have enabled the identification of key genetic elements involved in biosynthetic pathways of valuable bioactive compounds. In vitro-based BBBMs, including in vitro micropropagation, gene transformation, and polyploidy induction have been widely applied to enhance the valuable secondary metabolites of medicinal plants. CRISPR/Cas9 has great potential to target different key genes at the same time and produce plants with desired secondary metabolite profiles. Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated hairy root transformation is a perfect strategy for large-scale in vitro accumulation of valuable bioactive compounds of medicinal plants. Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated hairy root transformation coupled with bioreactors is a perfect strategy for large-scale in vitro accumulation of valuable bioactive compounds of medicinal plants.
The goal of this Research Topic is to present an overview of the potential of BBBMs for the improvement of medicinal plants. In addition, recent innovations, and fundamental discoveries in the field of biotechnology-based breeding of medicinal plants will be presented. We encourage authors to submit studies that use advanced in silico omics and in vitro technologies.
We welcome submissions of different types of manuscripts, including original research papers, reviews, and methods, on the following subtopics but not limited to:
• NGS studies, including GBS, RNA-seq, GWAS, TWAS, and WGS of medicinal plants;
• Molecular mechanisms of important medicinal characteristics;
• In vitro micropropagation and elicitation of medicinal plants;
• In vitro polyploidy induction of medicinal plants.
• Targeted genome editing of medicinal plants.
As green chemical factories, medicinal plants contain a wide range of bioactive compounds crucial for biomaterial industries. Despite their high economic value, medicinal plants are in the last ring of domestication syndrome and have been neglected for many years by plant breeders.
In recent years, plant breeders have tried to compensate for these shortages by developing different breeding strategies, especially faster biotechnology-based breeding methods (BBBMs). Next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based forward genetic techniques have enabled the identification of key genetic elements involved in biosynthetic pathways of valuable bioactive compounds. In vitro-based BBBMs, including in vitro micropropagation, gene transformation, and polyploidy induction have been widely applied to enhance the valuable secondary metabolites of medicinal plants. CRISPR/Cas9 has great potential to target different key genes at the same time and produce plants with desired secondary metabolite profiles. Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated hairy root transformation is a perfect strategy for large-scale in vitro accumulation of valuable bioactive compounds of medicinal plants. Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated hairy root transformation coupled with bioreactors is a perfect strategy for large-scale in vitro accumulation of valuable bioactive compounds of medicinal plants.
The goal of this Research Topic is to present an overview of the potential of BBBMs for the improvement of medicinal plants. In addition, recent innovations, and fundamental discoveries in the field of biotechnology-based breeding of medicinal plants will be presented. We encourage authors to submit studies that use advanced in silico omics and in vitro technologies.
We welcome submissions of different types of manuscripts, including original research papers, reviews, and methods, on the following subtopics but not limited to:
• NGS studies, including GBS, RNA-seq, GWAS, TWAS, and WGS of medicinal plants;
• Molecular mechanisms of important medicinal characteristics;
• In vitro micropropagation and elicitation of medicinal plants;
• In vitro polyploidy induction of medicinal plants.
• Targeted genome editing of medicinal plants.
