Biofabrication and Synthetic Biology for Enhanced Medicinal Plant Bioproduction

Traditional methods of cultivating medicinal plants are frequently confronted with hurdles like fluctuating secondary metabolite content, prolonged growth cycles, and environmental constraints. The resultant variability poses challenges to the consistent and efficient production of secondary metabolites, impeding the establishment of standardized and dependable sources for pharmaceutical and industrial purposes. With the increasing demand for specific bioactive compounds, there is an urgent need for a more targeted and controlled approach to medicinal plant cultivation.

Biofabrication techniques, such as synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and precision breeding, offer novel insights for medicinal plant cultivation. By leveraging biofabrication and advanced technologies, we can design and optimize plants for enhanced secondary metabolite production with precisely tailored bioactive profiles. These advancements hold great promise for personalized medicine, pharmaceutical development, and sustainable medicinal plant production.

This Research Topic delves into the latest research, methodologies, and breakthroughs in the realm of biofabrication and synthetic biology applied to medicinal plant systems. The fundamental aim is to explore novel for designing and engineering medicinal plants, optimizing their biosynthetic pathways for enhanced and tailored production of secondary metabolites to meet specific therapeutic and industrial needs. We intend to bring together experts in plant biology, synthetic biology, bioprocessing, and biofabrication to showcase recent advances, share insights, and propose strategies for the biofabrication of designer medicinal plants.

We welcome submissions of different articles types, including Original Research, Review, Methods, Opinion, and Perspective. Subtopics of interest include the following but are not limited to:

• Genetic engineering for medicinal plant biofabrication
• Synthetic biology applications
• Metabolic engineering strategies
• Bioprocessing and cultivation techniques
• Characterization and analytical methods
• Machine learning in plant metabolism
• Advanced plant bioprocessing
• Plant nanobiotechnology
• Bio robotics for plant cultivation

Keywords: Plant synthetic biology, Plant tissue biofabrication, Medicinal plant engineering, Secondary metabolites, Plant nanobiotechnology

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.