Exploring specialized metabolic pathways in medicinal plants with single-cell and spatial omics

Area of Science:

• Plant biology
• Metabolomics
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Medicinal plants produce diverse specialized metabolites crucial for ecological interactions and pharmaceuticals.
• Biosynthetic pathways for these metabolites are complex and often cell-specific, remaining largely uncharacterized.
• Classical bulk omics approaches average cellular signals, hindering the study of cell-specific metabolic processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review technological advances in plant single-cell and spatial omics.
• To examine the application of these technologies in plant metabolic pathway discovery and partitioning.
• To discuss future directions for synthetic biology and metabolic engineering using these omics approaches.

Main Methods:

• Review of recent single-cell and spatial omics technologies.
• Analysis of case studies in monoterpene indole alkaloid and Taxol biosynthesis.
• Discussion of technological advancements and their implications.

Main Results:

• Single-cell and spatial omics provide high spatiotemporal resolution for investigating plant metabolism.
• These technologies enable the resolution of cell-specific metabolic processes previously obscured by bulk omics.
• Examples include advancements in understanding the biosynthesis of complex plant natural products.

Conclusions:

• Single-cell and spatial omics are revolutionizing the study of plant metabolic pathways.
• These tools accelerate the mapping of plant metabolic networks.
• Harnessing these technologies facilitates biotechnological exploitation for pharmaceutical development.