Structural Biology: A Gateway to Understanding Metabolic and Signaling Pathways in Plants

Structural molecular biology gives us priceless insights into the molecules of life. Three-dimensional structures show with great precision the shape of macromolecules, their active sites, and the mode of interaction with small-molecules or other macromolecules. This information, paired with biochemical, biophysical, in cellulo and in vivo studies, allows characterization of structure-function relationships at the deepest level. Only then can we fully comprehend the intricacies of plant growth, development, cellular regulation, and the mechanisms underlying stress responses. Beside purely explorative values, these insights carry a huge potential for applied plant sciences to combat current and future challenges in agriculture, forestry, and environmental studies.

Only approximately 3% of the Protein Data Bank entries are of plant origin, which hinders our understanding of plant biology at the molecular level. An opportunity to fill some gaps in knowledge has been brought by the recent development of structural biology techniques, which have complemented macromolecular X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Methods such as cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and microelectron diffraction (microED) allow solving of structures unattainable in the past. Cryo-EM, together with time-resolved structural biology, even has the power to demonstrate protein dynamics and explain reaction mechanisms. Furthermore, the advent of in silico tools based on artificial intelligence (AI), allows us to have a glimpse at macromolecules whose structures have not been solved experimentally.

This Research Topic focuses on the advancements in plant structural biology. We encourage researchers to contribute by submitting original research as well as review manuscripts addressing particularly the following areas:

• Plant metabolism;
• Abiotic and biotic stress responses;
• Stress tolerance and adaptation;
• Plant growth and development;
• Hormonal regulation;
• Chemodiversity;
• The development of methodologies in structural biology.

Keywords: crystallography, cryo-EM, artificial intelligence, metabolism, stress responses, phytohormones, signaling pathways

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.