In vitro adventitious roots: a non-disruptive technology for the production of phytoconstituents on the industrial scale.

The current trends of consumer-driven demands for natural therapeutics and the availability of evidence-based phytopharmaceuticals from traditional knowledge has once again brought the medicinal plants into forefront of health. In 2019, World Health Organization global report on traditional and complementary medicine has also substantiated the revival of herbal medicine including its convergence with conventional medicine for the management and prevention of diseases. It means these industries need plenty of plant materials to meet the unprecedented demands of herbal formulations. However, it is pertinent to mention here that around 70-80% medicinal plants are sourced from the wild and most of such highly acclaimed plants are listed under Rare, Endangered and Threatened species by IUCN. Additionally, over 30% traditional health formulations are based on underground plant parts, which lead to the uprooting of plants. Overharvesting from limited plant populations, meager conventional cultivation and a rising fondness for natural products exerting enormous pressure on natural habitats. Therefore, the nondestructive means of phytochemical production employing biotechnological tools could be used for sustainable production and consumption patterns. In recent years, a number of reports described the use of adventitious roots induced under in vitro conditions for the extraction of phytochemicals on a sustainable basis. In this article, efforts are made to review recent developments in this area as well as understand the induction mechanisms of adventitious roots, their in vitro cultivation, probable factors that affect the growth and metabolite production, and assess the possibility of industrial scale production to meet the rising demands of natural herbs.

From Gut to Hormones: Unraveling the Role of Gut Microbiota in (Phyto)Estrogen Modulation in Health and Disease.

The human gut microbiota regulates estrogen metabolism through the "estrobolome," the collection of bacterial genes that encode enzymes like ß-glucuronidases and ß-glucosidases. These enzymes deconjugate and reactivate estrogen, influencing circulating levels. The estrobolome mediates the enterohepatic circulation and bioavailability of estrogen. Alterations in gut microbiota composition and estrobolome function have been associated with estrogen-related diseases like breast cancer, enometrial cancer, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). This is likely due to dysregulated estrogen signaling partly contributed by the microbial impacts on estrogen metabolism. Dietary phytoestrogens also undergo bacterial metabolism into active metabolites like equol, which binds estrogen receptors and exhibits higher estrogenic potency than its precursor daidzein. However, the ability to produce equol varies across populations, depending on the presence of specific gut microbes. Characterizing the estrobolome and equol-producing genes across populations can provide microbiome-based biomarkers. Further research is needed to investigate specific components of the estrobolome, phytoestrogen-microbiota interactions, and mechanisms linking dysbiosis to estrogen-related pathology. However, current evidence suggests that the gut microbiota is an integral regulator of estrogen status with clinical relevance to women's health and hormonal disorders.

Monkeypox virus: phylogenomics, host-pathogen interactome and mutational cascade.

While the world is still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, monkeypox virus (MPXV) awaits to cause another global outbreak as a challenge to all of mankind. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us a lesson to speed up the pace of viral genomic research for the implementation of preventive and treatment strategies. One of the important aspects of MPXV that needs immediate insight is its evolutionary lineage based on genomic studies. Utilizing high-quality isolates from the GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data) database, primarily sourced from Europe and North America, we employed a SNP-based whole-genome phylogeny method and identified four major clusters among 628 MPXV isolates. Our findings indicate a distinct evolutionary lineage for the first MPXV isolate, and a complex epidemiology and evolution of MPXV strains across various countries. Further analysis of the host-pathogen interaction network revealed key viral proteins, such as E3, SPI-2, K7 and CrmB, that play a significant role in regulating the network and inhibiting the host's cellular innate immune system. Our structural analysis of proteins E3 and CrmB revealed potential disruption of stability due to certain mutations. While this study identified a large number of mutations within the new outbreak clade, it also reflected that we need to move fast with the genomic analysis of newly detected strains from around the world to develop better prevention and treatment methods.