Unraveling the Metabolic Diversity of Phytochemical-Rich Plants: Integrative Metabolomics Approaches

Phytochemical-rich plants are renowned for their remarkable chemodiversity, producing an array of specialized metabolites crucial for their ecological fitness, defense mechanisms, and adaptation to varied environments. These bioactive compounds not only reflect the intricate metabolic networks shaped by evolutionary pressures but also play key roles in plant survival strategies. Despite their importance, the complexity and diversity of these plant metabolomes remain largely underexplored at the molecular and systems biology levels.

This Research Topic aims to spotlight how advanced metabolomics tools, particularly mass spectrometry-based approaches, can unravel the biosynthetic pathways, metabolic regulation, and chemodiversity of traditionally used plant species. Rather than focusing solely on analytical techniques, the emphasis is on how these tools facilitate biological discovery and deepen our understanding of plant metabolism.

We encourage contributions that investigate how metabolomics reveals the organization, diversity, and functional relevance of metabolic processes specific to therapeutic plant species. Studies integrating metabolomics with other omics technologies to provide comprehensive insights into plant metabolism are particularly welcome.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Comprehensive metabolic profiling of bioactive plant species to uncover species-specific chemodiversity.

• Elucidation of specialized metabolic pathways involved in the biosynthesis of key phytochemicals.

• Integration of metabolomics with genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics to map regulatory networks governing plant metabolism.

• Comparative metabolomics to investigate how environmental, physiological, or evolutionary factors influence metabolite diversity in traditionally used plants.

• Application of computational metabolomics, machine learning, and chemoinformatics tools for metabolite identification and pathway reconstruction.

• Development of advanced sample preparation workflows specifically tailored to the complexity of phytochemical-rich plant metabolomes.

• Utilization of ambient and high-resolution MS-based techniques to resolve structural complexity, without focusing on bioactivity or medical assays.

• Exploration of metabolite spatial distribution within plant tissues to understand biosynthetic compartmentalization.

Please note: This Research Topic explicitly focuses on plant metabolic pathways and chemodiversity, and will not consider studies centered on pharmacological bioactivity, medical applications, or drug activity assays.

By bridging advanced metabolomics with plant molecular biology, this Topic aims to provide deeper, systems-level insights into the metabolic uniqueness of plants producing specialized metabolites, contributing to a broader understanding of plant metabolism, adaptation, and chemodiversity.

Keywords: plant metabolomics, chemodiversity, specialized metabolites, mass spectrometry, biosynthetic 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.