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Agronomy
Special Issues
Metabolomics-Centered Mining of Crop Metabolic Diversity and Function
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Metabolomics-Centered Mining of Crop Metabolic Diversity and Function

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2025 | Viewed by 2779

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hongbo Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao 266101, China
Interests: the regulation of plant secondary metabolism; molecular breeding; natural product biosynthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ning Yan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Tobacco Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao 266101, China
Interests: crop; secondary metabolite; bioactivity; regulation; metabolomics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In response to environmental stimuli, plants produce large amounts of secondary metabolites that serve as antioxidants, antimicrobial agents, and modulators of biological processes to help protect plants from pathogens and predators. These secondary metabolites play a pivotal role in enhancing the nutritional values of plants, and they are often unique to specific plant species. Consumers could benefit from the consumption of crops abundant in specific secondary metabolites, which can aid in disease prevention, improve immune function, and promote overall well-being. Thus, understanding and regulating the production of secondary metabolites in crops is crucial for enhancing their nutritional values and improving human health. This Special Issue will be focused on “Metabolomics-Centered Mining of Crop Metabolic Diversity and Function” for plant biologists with expertise in the bioactivity and function of secondary metabolites in crops, the metabolomics of diverse crops, the regulation of secondary metabolism in crops, and the approaches for improving the nutritional values of crops to share their recent advances with plant biologists, farmers, and the scientific community.

Dr. Hongbo Zhang
Dr. Ning Yan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • crop
  • metabolomics
  • nutrition
  • function
  • regulation

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2347 KiB  
Article
De Novo Synthesis of Anticholinergic Hyoscyamine and Scopolamine in Nicotiana benthamiana Based on Elucidating Tropane Alkaloid Biosynthetic Pathway of Anisodus luridus
by Mengling Wen, Junlan Zeng, Fei Qiu, Fangyuan Zhang and Zhihua Liao
Agronomy 2024, 14(11), 2460; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14112460 - 22 Oct 2024
Viewed by 485
Abstract
Anisodus luridus, a perennial herb belonging to the genus Anisodus of the Solanaceae family, is an important Tibetan medicinal plant that produces pharmaceutical tropane alkaloids (TAs) including hyoscyamine and scopolamine. Its high yield of hyoscyamine makes A. luridus a valuable plant source [...] Read more.
Anisodus luridus, a perennial herb belonging to the genus Anisodus of the Solanaceae family, is an important Tibetan medicinal plant that produces pharmaceutical tropane alkaloids (TAs) including hyoscyamine and scopolamine. Its high yield of hyoscyamine makes A. luridus a valuable plant source for commercially producing TAs. In this study, we conduct homologous gene research across transcriptome data of different tissues together with functionally tested sequences in Atropa belladonna as a reference and identify 13 candidate genes for TAs biosynthesis in A. luridus. The results show that these 13 TAs biosynthesis genes identified in A. luridus were highly conserved in terms of sequence similarity and gene expression patterns compared to A. belladonna, suggesting that the two species may share the same biosynthetic pathway for TAs biosynthesis. Furthermore, scopolamine was detected in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves when these 13 enzymes were co-expressed in N. benthamiana, which confirmed that these 13 TAs biosynthesis genes are involved in the biosynthesis of TAs. The results of our study not only systematically elucidate the tropane alkaloid biosynthetic pathway of A. luridus, but also realize the de novo synthesis of TAs in N. benthamiana for the first time. It is now possible to make N. benthamiana a potential source for TAs production through synthetic biology techniques. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics-Centered Mining of Crop Metabolic Diversity and Function)
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13 pages, 25799 KiB  
Article
Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Involvement of Auxin Signaling in the Heat Tolerance of Pakchoi under High-Temperature Stress
by Bing Yang, Yaosong Chen, Xiaofeng Li, Lu Gao, Liming Miao, Yishan Song, Dingyu Zhang and Hongfang Zhu
Agronomy 2024, 14(8), 1604; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14081604 - 23 Jul 2024
Viewed by 806
Abstract
Pakchoi is a kind of nonheading Chinese cabbage being widely cultivated not only in China but also all over Asia. High temperature is a major limiting factor influencing the yield and quality of pakchoi, while the mechanism of pakchoi dealing with high-temperature challenges [...] Read more.
Pakchoi is a kind of nonheading Chinese cabbage being widely cultivated not only in China but also all over Asia. High temperature is a major limiting factor influencing the yield and quality of pakchoi, while the mechanism of pakchoi dealing with high-temperature challenges remains largely elusive. In the present study, we conducted a comparative transcriptomic analysis, which was also validated by qPCR, of the heat-tolerant Xinxiaqing (XXQ) variant and Suzhouqing (SZQ) variant, which are heat-sensitive under high-temperature treatment. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses suggest that high-temperature-induced phytohormones signal transduction, especially auxin signal transduction, regulates the heat responses of pakchoi. Our further investigations imply that high-temperature-activated auxin signal plays a positive role in helping pakchoi deal with high-temperature challenge; IAA-pretreated pakchoi plants exhibited greater resistance to the high-temperature treatment, probably due to the induction of antioxidant activity. In addition, our study also identified six heat shock proteins/factors (HSPs/HSFs) whose up-regulation correlates with the elevated heat tolerance of pakchoi. Notably, among these high-temperature-induced heat-responsive factors, HSP20 and HSP26.5 are under the regulation of auxin signal, and this signal cascade contributes to enhancing the thermostability of pakchoi. In the present study, we identified crucial high-temperature-responsive factors and signaling pathways in pakchoi, which help in understanding the mechanism of pakchoi coping with high-temperature challenge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics-Centered Mining of Crop Metabolic Diversity and Function)
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17 pages, 2636 KiB  
Article
Quantitative Trait Loci Mapping and Association Analysis of Solanesol Content in Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.)
by Jing Liu, Dehu Xiang, Yongmei Du, Zhongfeng Zhang, Hongbo Zhang, Lirui Cheng, Qiujuan Fu, Ning Yan, Fuzhu Ju, Chaofan Qi, Yunkang Lei, Jun Wang and Yanhua Liu
Agronomy 2024, 14(7), 1370; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14071370 - 26 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1066
Abstract
Solanesol, which accumulates predominantly in the leaves of tobacco plants, has medically important bioactive properties. To investigate the genetic basis of solanesol in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), the solanesol contents of 222 accessions, 206 individuals from an N. tabacum Maryland609 (low-solanesol) × [...] Read more.
Solanesol, which accumulates predominantly in the leaves of tobacco plants, has medically important bioactive properties. To investigate the genetic basis of solanesol in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), the solanesol contents of 222 accessions, 206 individuals from an N. tabacum Maryland609 (low-solanesol) × K326 (high-solanesol) F2 population and their corresponding F1 self-pollinations, were determined using ultra-performance liquid chromatography. Genome-wide quantitative trait locus (QTL) and association analysis were performed to identify QTLs and markers associated with solanesol content based on simple sequence repeat molecular markers. A total of 12 QTLs underlying solanesol content were mapped to seven linkage groups (LGs), with three of the QTLs (QTL3-1, QTL21-6, and QTL23-3) explaining 5.19–10.05% of the phenotypic variation. Association analysis revealed 38 significant marker-trait associations in at least one environment. The associations confirmed the QTLs located on LG3, LG10, LG14, LG21, and LG23, while new elite makers were located on 11 additional LGs, each explaining, respectively, 5.16–20.07% of the phenotypic variation. The markers LG14-PT54448, LG10-PT60114-2, LG10-PT60510, LG10-PT61061, and LG-21PT20388 may be useful for molecular-assisted selection of solanesol content in tobacco leaves. These results increase our understanding of the inheritance of solanesol-associated genes and will contribute to molecular-assisted breeding and further isolation of regulatory genes involved in solanesol biosynthesis in tobacco leaves. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics-Centered Mining of Crop Metabolic Diversity and Function)
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