Interactions Between Medicinal Plants and Microbes: From Molecules to Ecosystem

Medicinal plants establish a close relationship with the microorganisms in their native habitats. These interactions are mutual and dynamic, forming a symbiotic system between plants and microbes. Beneficial microorganisms play a crucial role in influencing the growth, reproduction, secondary metabolism, and disease resistance of medicinal plants. With rapid advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies and molecular interaction techniques, the interaction between microorganisms and medicinal plants and their effects on host metabolism have been studied more extensively. In particular, the exploration and utilization of endophytic and rhizosphere microbial resources in medicinal plants have become a research focus in recent years, offering new opportunities to improve the yield and quality of medicinal plants. Additionally, pathogenic diseases continue to threaten the healthy growth of medicinal plants and compromise their medicinal properties. Research into plant-microbe interactions may provide potential strategies to mitigate these challenges.

This Research Topic seeks to compile and disseminate groundbreaking research and review articles that explore the multi-dimensional aspects of medicinal plants-microbe interactions. It is designed to provide a comprehensive platform that encourages interdisciplinary dialogues and fosters innovation in research and application. By elucidating the molecular and ecological mechanisms through which beneficial microbes (and specific synthetic microbiota) promote the healthy growth of medicinal plants and enhance the accumulation of active ingredients. This collection aims to provide a foundation for translating these beneficial fungi and bacteria into improved breeding and cultivation practices for medicinal plants.

We welcome contributions within the scope of the journal's focus on medicinal plant-microbe interactions, offering novel perspectives on harnessing microbial resources to enhance medicinal crop quality. We invite submissions of original research, reviews, and perspective articles addressing, but not limited to the following themes:
1. Characterization of the medicinal plant-associated microbiomes (e.g., endophytic, rhizosphere, and phyllosphere), with a focus on their diversity and functional roles in influencing plant growth, yield, and quality.
2. The influence and application of microbes on the growth, yield, active ingredient biosynthesis, disease resistance, and abiotic stress tolerance of medicinal plants.
3. Molecular and ecological mechanisms underlying the interactions between microorganisms and medicinal plants.
4. Construction of synthetic microbiomes and its application in improving the yield and quality of medicinal plants.
5. Engineering microbial mutants: key microbiome genes involved in the beneficial effect on medicinal plants.
6. Negative impacts of pathogenic microorganisms on medicinal plants and microbial-based strategies for enhancing disease resistance.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: medicinal plant, endophytic microorganism, rhizosphere microorganism, microbial community, plant pathogen, microbiome, SynComs, plant growth promotion, secondary metabolite, active ingredient, stress tolerance, disease resistant, one health

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.