In-Depth Interpretation of Critical Genomic Information Related to the Biosynthesis of Key Specialized (Secondary) Metabolism in Medicinal Plants

Every aspect of human life is inseparable from plants. There are more than 300,000 species of plants worldwide, which have important ecosystem and economic values for humans. Several common plants have existed throughout the history of human civilization, providing humans with abundant food, wood, fiber, and medicine. Since ancient times, people in different countries and regions have used the whole or partial tissues of some plants (such as flowers, stems, leaves, roots, fruits and seeds, etc.) for the treatment of common diseases, and have artificially domesticated and cultivated these plants to make them better serve human beings. In modern medicine, organic compounds have also been extracted from plants to treat malaria, skin diseases, and cancer which is considered incurable by ancients. Medicinal plants produce primary metabolites through photosynthesis and synthesize a wide variety of specialized (secondary) metabolism through a series of complex pathways. Specialized metabolites of medicinal plants play an important role in treating diseases. However, the biosynthesis pathways of plant specialized metabolites are generally complicated and vary widely among plant species, which is a great challenge for plant researchers.

The decoding of plant genome sequences provides an important blueprint for the study of key specialized metabolites of medicinal plants. However, only the genome sequence is far from enough. With the rapid development of a variety of omics, especially transcriptomic, metabolomic and proteomic sequencing technologies, it is becoming less difficult to mine genomic information related to biosynthesis and regulation of key specialized metabolites in medicinal plants. The in-depth interpretation of this critical genomic information, both theoretically and practically, provides valuable insights into comparative genomics, evolutionary biology, and synthetic biology. With the continuous development of multi-omics technology, the utilization and development of medicinal plants have gradually developed from relatively backward empiricism to higher accuracy and precision.

In this Research Topic, we would like to collect studies dedicated to genomic studies of medicinal plants especially those that focus on:
- Characterization and deep analysis of medicinal plant genomes.
- Deep mining of key genes that involved in the biosynthesis of key specialized metabolites in medicinal plants.
- Comparative studies of biosynthesis pathways and regulation mechanisms of key specialized metabolites across different plant species.
- Functional verification and further application of key biosynthesis genes in synthetic biology.

Keywords: medicinal plant genome, synthetic biology, specialized (secondary) metabolite biosynthesis, gene regulatory network, multi-omics integration

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