Insights into recent advances in secondary metabolites (SMs)-mediated defense responses in plants

Abstract

Climate change induces various environmental stressors that restrict plant processes, thereby limiting overall crop productivity. Plant secondary metabolites (SMs) enable plants to quickly detect a broad array of environmental stressors and respond in accordance to rapidly changing environmental scenarios. Notably, SMs regulate defense signaling cascades and provide defensive functions to safeguard plants against various biotic and abiotic stressors. In this review, we provide an overview of insights into recent advances in types and biosynthetic pathways of SMs. We emphasize the mechanisms of different biotic and abiotic elicitors-induced SMs synthesis and accumulation to regulate defense responses. In addition, SMs-mediated regulation of plant processes act through phytohormones signaling cascades is discussed. Finally, we show that transcriptional factors regulating SMs biosynthesis and associated regulatory networks could be used for creating resilient plants. Overall, this comprehensive review gives insight into recent advances regarding crucial roles of SMs in enhanced resistance and provides new ideas for the development of stress-resistant varieties under current climate change scenarios.

Keywords: Climate change; elicitation; secondary metabolites; signaling cascades; transcription factors.