Editorial overview: Physiology and metabolism 2024.

Plants are collectively capable of making an enormous array of structurally diverse metabolites. Metabolic diversification is particularly predominant amongst the land plants, and it is believed to reflect adaptation to different environmental niches. Consistent with this hypothesis, the ability to produce particular types of specialized metabolites is normally restricted to narrow taxonomic subgroups of plants. As we learn more about plant genome sequences, it is becoming evident that plant genomes harbour large numbers of as yet uncharacterized genes with predicted functions in specialized metabolism. Plant specialized metabolites have been honed by nature to have bioactivity, and so are a rich source of drugs. Despite extensive efforts, we currently understand very little about how plant specialized metabolites are made, what they do, and the mechanisms underpinning metabolic diversification. Genomics, coupled with advanced analytical and computational approaches for investigating metabolism, are now shedding new light on plant metabolic diversity and opening up unprecedented opportunities to harness this for food, health and other industrial applications