About this Research Topic
Plants synthesize several secondary metabolites for different physiological functions, such as defense against pathogens, symbiotic relationships, reproduction, among others. A great number of these metabolites (e.g., shikonin, rosmarinic acid, saponins, phytocannabinoids, flavonoids, terpenes ) have great industrial and economic potential as they are extensively used in the established and emerging pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food sectors. However, the high demand of these compounds is limited by the plant’s production yield, as they are synthesized in specific tissues and organs at low quantities. Thus, to tackle this limitation, several platforms are actually used for the production of these compounds, being conventional agriculture and transgenic microbes the main used platforms. In this regard, plant cell and tissue cultures (PCTC) arise as a valid alternative platform for the production of these added-values compounds.
PCTC have the advantage over conventional agriculture of not being seasonal dependent, superior standardization of production procedures and a low ecosystem impact as water usage is optimized and pesticides and other toxic chemicals are not used. Over microorganism, PCTC can resolve the limitations of these platform, such as substrate availability, chaperone availability, incorrect post-translational modification of proteins and differences in protein micro-compartmentalization, among others. Also, PCTC can arise as a safer platform and subsequently, more apt to comply with regulations. Likewise, besides PCTC being used as a platform for the production of native high-value plant-specific secondary metabolites, they can be used as other heterologous systems. As genome editing continues to be one of the fastest growing fields in biological science, this progress had equipped researchers with great and new methods for the production of foreign metabolites within PCTC, increasing PCTC potential. In fact, Canada’s government department responsible for national health policy, recently approved the production of major vaccine components in plants. This reveals the major potential of PCTC for the production of several biochemical compounds.
As demand for plant secondary metabolites continue to rise and as genome editing continues to be one of the fastest growing fields in biological science, PCTC arise as a platform for the production of added-value compounds with great potential. This focus issue covers promising and novel research trends, technological breakthroughs and creative applications of different aspects of PCTC production techniques and advances in genome editing (ZFNs, TALENs, CRISPR) applied for the usage of PTCT.
We welcome submissions of original research articles, reviews, methodology and technology articles with the following subjects but not limited to:
• Innovative bioengineering tools and methodologies to develop PCTC
• New gene-edited PCTC with great potential
• Adaptability of new gene-editing systems to increase the potential of PCTC
• Novel products related with gene-edited PCTC
PCTC have the advantage over conventional agriculture of not being seasonal dependent, superior standardization of production procedures and a low ecosystem impact as water usage is optimized and pesticides and other toxic chemicals are not used. Over microorganism, PCTC can resolve the limitations of these platform, such as substrate availability, chaperone availability, incorrect post-translational modification of proteins and differences in protein micro-compartmentalization, among others. Also, PCTC can arise as a safer platform and subsequently, more apt to comply with regulations. Likewise, besides PCTC being used as a platform for the production of native high-value plant-specific secondary metabolites, they can be used as other heterologous systems. As genome editing continues to be one of the fastest growing fields in biological science, this progress had equipped researchers with great and new methods for the production of foreign metabolites within PCTC, increasing PCTC potential. In fact, Canada’s government department responsible for national health policy, recently approved the production of major vaccine components in plants. This reveals the major potential of PCTC for the production of several biochemical compounds.
As demand for plant secondary metabolites continue to rise and as genome editing continues to be one of the fastest growing fields in biological science, PCTC arise as a platform for the production of added-value compounds with great potential. This focus issue covers promising and novel research trends, technological breakthroughs and creative applications of different aspects of PCTC production techniques and advances in genome editing (ZFNs, TALENs, CRISPR) applied for the usage of PTCT.
We welcome submissions of original research articles, reviews, methodology and technology articles with the following subjects but not limited to:
• Innovative bioengineering tools and methodologies to develop PCTC
• New gene-edited PCTC with great potential
• Adaptability of new gene-editing systems to increase the potential of PCTC
• Novel products related with gene-edited PCTC
Keywords: Plant Cell and Tissue Cultures, Added-Values Compounds, Production Improvement, Plant Secondary Metabolites, Plant Genetic Engineering
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
