Bioscience Evidence 2025, Vol.15, No.6, 280-290 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/be 287 the average temperature in the cold season, as well as the effective water capacity of the soil and other factors, will significantly affect the distribution of motherwort and the amount of its medicinal components. By conducting ecological suitability zoning for these environmental factors or using climate change models, more suitable areas can be selected for targeted planting, thereby increasing the content of components such as leonurine. The active ingredients of motherwort from different origins also vary significantly. For instance, the contents of leonurine and tribulus terrestris in the plants from Zhejiang region are relatively high. This indicates that choosing the appropriate origin and doing a good job in ecological management are very crucial for the quality of medicinal materials (Zhang et al., 2025). 7.2 Molecular breeding and gene editing High-quality genomic and multi-omics data provide a reliable basis for the molecular breeding and gene editing of motherwort. Studies have found that the synthesis of leonurine is inseparable from key enzymes such as ADC, UGT and SCPL, and the amplification and functional changes of gene clusters related to these enzymes are important genetic reasons for the large accumulation of its active ingredients (Wang et al., 2024). Germplasm resources with highly active component genotypes can be screened out through molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS) or genome-wide association analysis (GWAS). Gene editing technologies, such as CRISPR/Cas9, are also expected to directly regulate the genes of these key enzymes, further enhancing the synthesis efficiency of components such as leonurine (Bai et al., 2025). The research on mitochondrial genomes and repeat sequences also provides a new reference direction for genetic diversity conservation and breeding (Hu et al., 2025). 7.3 Synthetic biology and heterologous production Synthetic biology provides a new approach for the heterologous production of active ingredients fromLeonurus japonicus. By analyzing the complete metabolic pathways of components such as leonurine and reconstructing these pathways in model organisms such as yeast or Arabidopsis thaliana, it is expected to achieve large-scale and controllable production of these medicinal components (Li et al., 2023). The identification of high-quality genomes and functional genes provides key genes and regulatory elements for the construction of synthetic biology platforms (Wang et al., 2024). In addition, heterologous expression systems can not only be used to verify gene functions but also for high-throughput screening, laying the foundation for new drug development and industrialization. 8 Challenges and Future Directions 8.1 Deficiencies in gene function identification Although there have been many advancements in the genomic, transcriptomic and multi-omics studies of Leonurus japonicus in recent years, the functions of many key genes have actually not been clarified. For instance, we already know that enzymes such as ADC, UGT, and SCPL are very important in the synthesis of leonurine, but their regulatory methods under different environments, changes in enzyme activity, and the mutual influences among them are still not clear enough. In addition, although there are some clues about the role of transcription factors like WRKY in stress response and secondary metabolism regulation, their downstream target genes and regulatory networks still need to be further verified (Li et al., 2023). Mitochondrial and chloroplast genome studies have also provided considerable information for breeding and phylogeny, but their specific contributions to the accumulation of active components still need to be further explored. 8.2 Understanding of ecological interaction mechanisms The amount of active ingredients in Leonurus japonicus is not only related to genes, but also closely related to the ecological environment. Climate, soil, moisture and geographical location all affect its distribution and the content of medicinal components (Wang et al., 2023). But at present, we still don't know much about the specific relationship between it and these environmental factors, such as how changes in water, temperature and pH affect the plants? What effects do the microorganisms in the rhizosphere and the surrounding companion plants have? All of these require more systematic research. Although ecological suitability zoning and climate simulation have provided a basis for resource conservation and cultivation, research on the ecological interaction mechanism itself is still insufficient.
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