Plant-derived natural compounds in drug discovery: The prism perspective between plant phylogeny, chemical composition, and medicinal efficacy | Frontiers Research Topic (frontiersin.org)

Frontiers in Plant Science (SCI中科院二区) 2022专刊征稿，恳请各位专家赐稿，赐教

About this Research Topic

The concept of “pharmacophylogeny” was proposed by Professor Peigen Xiao in the 1980s based on long-term studies of Chinese researchers especially since the 1950s and is embedded in a wider global development of molecular phylogeny and pharmacology globally. The complicated systematic relationships and connectivity between medicinal plants, their chemical profiles and therapeutic utilities are consistent goals in pharmacophylogenetic studies, which benefit innovative plant-based drug R&D. More recently, the concept of “pharmacophylogenomics” has been of importance in botanical drug R&D and over the last decades has seen an gradual increase in its importance. Pharmacophylogeny and pharmacophylogenomics are truly transdisciplinary i.e. the synthesis of multiple disciplines, such as molecular phylogeny/chemotaxonomy, plant morphology, plant biochemistry/molecular biology and the various omics approaches, ethnobotany/ethnopharmacology, and the like. Medicinal plants within the same phylogenetic groups may have the same or similar therapeutically active metabolites and consequently effects, thus forming the core of pharmacophylogeny. In the past, pharmacophylogeny has played a major role in the search for alternative resources for imported drugs globally including in China. At present, it continues to play an active role in expanding medicinal plant resources, quality control/identification of herbal medicines, as well as predicting the chemical constituents or active ingredients of herbal medicine and the identification/determination of active metabolites. In the future, it will play an important role in the search for new drugs, enabling a scientific understanding of and improving herbal medicines and their use. This will form a core basis for the sustainable use, conservation and future utilization of traditional/natural medicinal resources.
Relationships between species may be cryptic due to genetic factors or they may be morphologically and biochemically distinct. Biologically active compounds are mostly secondary metabolites, and the systematic distribution of these metabolites is a core area of deeper phylogenetic research. This includes potentially ‘inactive’ isomers based on biosynthetic pathways in plants. During the past two decades, various omics techniques have continued to evolve towards elucidating the cryptic relationships between plant phylogeny, secondary metabolites and their biosynthesis/biological activities, which promisingly provide lead entities to develop novel plant-derived drugs.
The goal of this Research Topic is to gain novel insights into the newly mined, cryptic and/or close relationships between plant phylogeny/phylogenomics, chemical composition/metabolomics and biological activity (including traditional efficacy and pharmacological activities). A triple helix systems perspective would be preferred to illustrate the latest awareness and prospects of pharmacophylogeny, pharmacophylogenomics and related concepts, as well as their expanding utility in botanical drug R&D. Such studies need to be developed within the context of deeper investigations of molecular biology and genomics of medicinal plants, their metabolites and metabolomics, and ethnopharmacology-based assessments with the wider aim of enabling the sustainable conservation and utilization of botanical resources.
We welcome submissions of different types of manuscripts including original research papers, reviews, and methods, including but not limited to:
1. Phylogenetic relationships of medicinal plants and relevant taxonomic groups based on molecular markers and omics big data;
2. Biosynthesis pathways of phytometabolites and their regulatory mechanisms in wild or cultivated medicinal plants, their evolutionary and ecological/geographical implications;
3. Phytochemical and metabolomic analyses of medicinal plants, with plant pharmacophylogeny consequences;
4. Association between plant physiology/pathology of specialized metabolites and their bioactivity/pharmacological activity;
5. Mining local plant resources and expanding plant chemodiversity resources in the context of pharmacophylogeny/pharmacophylogenomics;
6. Utility of genomics/epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and bioinformatics in the identification/determination and analysis of medicinal plants and varieties;
7. Technical advances in all aspects of medicinal plants, e.g. predicting metabolite distribution on the phylogenetic tree, identifying low abundance phytometabolites, improving ethnobotany experiences.
Studies need to comply with the best practice guidelines of the leading journals for pharmacological studies on plant extract / natural products including the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology including a detailed description of the material studied, its extraction and processing. (you can freely download the full version <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/files/pdf/4_pillars_FULL_TEXT.pdf" _blank"="" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; outline: 0px !important; font-family: MuseoSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif !important;">here).
Disclaimer: We welcome submissions of different types of related manuscripts, but descriptive studies lacking a testable research question and which do not offer significant advances in plant biology/biochemistry, plant evolution/ecology or studies only focusing on pharmacological function but without phylogenetic framework are rejected without peer review.

Keywords: Pharmacophylogeny, Plant phylogeny/phylogenomics, Chemical composition, Biological activity, Multi-omics

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.

关于这个研究课题

“药用亲缘学”的概念是由肖培根教授在20世纪80年代提出的，基于中国研究人员的长期研究，尤其是20世纪50年代以来的长期研究，并植根于更广泛的全球分子系统学和药理学发展中。药用植物之间复杂的系统关系和连通性、它们的化学特征和治疗效用是药物系统发育研究的一致目标，这有利于创新的植物药物研发，“药物系统基因组学”的概念在植物药物研发中具有重要意义，在过去几十年中，其重要性逐渐增加。药物系统学和药物系统基因组学是真正的跨学科，即多学科的综合，如分子系统学/化学分类学、植物形态学、植物生物化学/分子生物学和各种组学方法、民族植物学/民族药物学等。同一系统发育类群中的药用植物可能具有相同或相似的治疗活性代谢物，并因此产生作用，从而形成药物系统发育的核心。过去，药物系统学在全球（包括中国）寻找进口药物替代资源的过程中发挥了重要作用。目前，它在扩大药用植物资源、草药的质量控制/鉴定、预测草药的化学成分或活性成分以及鉴定/测定活性代谢物方面继续发挥积极作用。在未来，它将在寻找新药方面发挥重要作用，使人们能够科学地理解和改进草药及其使用。这将成为可持续利用、保护和未来利用传统/天然药物资源的核心基础。

由于遗传因素，物种之间的关系可能是隐蔽的，或者它们可能在形态和生物化学上是不同的。生物活性化合物大多是次级代谢产物，这些代谢产物的系统分布是更深入系统发育研究的核心领域。这包括基于植物生物合成途径的潜在“非活性”异构体。在过去20年中，各种组学技术不断发展，以阐明植物系统发育、次生代谢物及其生物合成/生物活性之间的神秘关系，这有望为开发新型植物衍生药物提供先导实体。

本研究主题的目标是对植物系统发育/系统基因组学、化学成分/代谢组学和生物活性（包括传统功效和药理活性）之间新发现的、神秘的和/或密切的关系获得新的见解。最好用三螺旋系统的观点来说明药物系统学、药物系统基因组学和相关概念的最新认识和前景，以及它们在植物药物研发中不断扩大的用途。此类研究需要在深入研究药用植物的分子生物学和基因组学、其代谢物和代谢组学的背景下进行，以及基于民族药理学的评估，其更广泛的目标是实现植物资源的可持续保护和利用。

我们欢迎提交不同类型的手稿，包括原始研究论文、评论和方法，包括但不限于：

1.基于分子标记和组学大数据的药用植物及其相关分类群的系统发育关系；

2.野生或栽培药用植物中植物代谢产物的生物合成途径及其调节机制，及其进化和生态/地理意义；

3.药用植物的植物化学和代谢组学分析，以及植物药物系统发育结果；

4.特殊代谢物的植物生理学/病理学与其生物活性/药理活性之间的关联；

5.在药用亲缘学/药用基因组亲缘学背景下挖掘当地植物资源，扩大植物化学多样性资源；

6.基因组学/表观基因组学、转录组学、蛋白质组学和生物信息学在药用植物和品种鉴定/测定和分析中的应用；

7.药用植物各方面的技术进步，例如预测系统发育树上的代谢物分布，识别低丰度植物代谢物，改善民族植物学经验。

研究需要遵守植物提取物/天然产物药理研究主要期刊的最佳实践指南，包括民族药理学最佳实践的四大支柱，包括对所研究材料、其提取和加工的详细描述。（您可以在此免费下载完整版本）。

免责声明：我们欢迎提交不同类型的相关manuscrip