Advances in Elicitor-Induced Biosynthesis of Bioactive Natural Products in Plants

Plant natural products are comprised of structurally diverse compounds with a wide range of bioactivities that play an essential role in pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, agricultural, and biotechnological applications. Their biosynthesis is triggered by various microbial, physical, and chemical factors, known as elicitors, that coordinate morphological and physiological responses in plants. Elicitors are of either biotic or abiotic origin and stimulate the plant defense system, leading to the synthesis and enhanced accumulation of bioactive specialized metabolites. Recent advancements in plant cell culture, multi-omics, metabolite profiling, analytical chemistry, bioinformatics, and machine learning tools have substantially improved the understanding of elicitor-responsive defense mechanisms, thereby enabling precise modulation of biosynthetic pathways leading to the production of phenolics, flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, and other high-value compounds. However, the utility of elicitors for enhanced metabolites depends on elicitor specificity, concentration, treatment duration, cultivation conditions, genotype, and metabolic responses, which are essential requisites for further reproducibility, scale-up, and commercial application.This Research Topic seeks to consolidate the recent advances in elicitor-based strategies to stimulate, regulate, and optimize the biosynthesis of high-value natural products in plants and plant-derived culture systems. This issue involves the mechanistic insights for biotic and abiotic elicitor signal transduction pathways, gene expression analysis, enzyme activity, metabolic flux, and the accumulation of structurally and biologically diverse compounds. The collection should bring together innovative methodologies, mechanistic insights, and recent applications highlighting elicitor-induced metabolic regulation and strategies for improved, consistent, and high-quality crops. The Research Topic will also encourage the integration of multi-omics studies, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, imaging, computational analysis, and metabolic engineering, for a comprehensive understanding of biosynthetic pathways and to optimize production. By highlighting sustainable and scalable approaches, this issue seeks to advance the development of plant-derived natural products that strengthen the agricultural system, advance human health, and promote responsible management of our terrestrial biological resources.The Research Topic will cover elicitor-induced natural product biosynthesis in whole plants, plant cell and tissue cultures, hairy-root cultures, organ cultures, and other plant-derived production systems. Studies focused primarily on ethnopharmacology or its applications are not suitable.We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Methods, and Perspectives addressing, but not limited to:o Biotic and abiotic elicitors for the production of plant specialized metaboliteso Elicitor perception, signaling, transcriptional regulation, and metabolic reprogrammingo Production of phenolics, flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, stilbenes, and other bioactive metaboliteso Multi-omics approaches to study the synthesis of plant-based natural productso Optimization, scale-up, sustainability, and biotechnological applications of elicitation-based production systems Topic editors: Dr. ARCHANA PRASAD, Pankaj Kumar Verma Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84364/advances-in-elicitor-induced-biosynthesis-of-bioactive-natural-products-in-plants