Stress and defense responses in plant secondary metabolites production

Abstract

In the growth condition(s) of plants, numerous secondary metabolites (SMs) are produced by them to serve variety of cellular functions essential for physiological processes, and recent increasing evidences have implicated stress and defense response signaling in their production. The type and concentration(s) of secondary molecule(s) produced by a plant are determined by the species, genotype, physiology, developmental stage and environmental factors during growth. This suggests the physiological adaptive responses employed by various plant taxonomic groups in coping with the stress and defensive stimuli. The past recent decades had witnessed renewed interest to study abiotic factors that influence secondary metabolism during in vitro and in vivo growth of plants. Application of molecular biology tools and techniques are facilitating understanding the signaling processes and pathways involved in the SMs production at subcellular, cellular, organ and whole plant systems during in vivo and in vitro growth, with application in metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathways intermediates.

Keywords: Antioxidants; Biotic and abiotic stress; Natural products; Oxidative stress; Phytochemicals; Phytochemistry; Plant nutrition; Plant physiology; Plant secondary metabolites.

Fig. 1

In their natural and in vitro growth conditions, plants encounter variety of stresses and biotic disturbances which leads to the initiation of stress and defense responses mediated by signaling processes and pathways involving repertoire of molecules to perform cellular functions essential for physiological processes. The physiological processes impact primary metabolism that provides biosynthetic intermediates for secondary metabolism, with concomitant effect on biomass and bioactive compounds biosynthesis. This generally depends on the species, genotype and cultivar as well as the stage of development and physiological state of the plant investigated