Exploring the complexity of plant stress response: role of metabolomics and signalling pathways in metabolic diversification
摘要
Plants as a sessile organism remain exposed to a wide range of abiotic as well as biotic factors that compromise their development and existence. As a result, they have developed complicated and extremely dynamic mechanisms for stress response that help them adapt to challenging environments. The complex nature of plant stress responses, with a particular focus upon how metabolomics associated signalling pathways influence metabolic diversity. Metabolomics, an effective method for comprehensive metabolite research, has shed light on how plants alter their metabolic networks in response to stress. Key signalling molecules such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), phytohormones, and secondary messengers all play important roles in stress sensing, signal transduction, and adaptive responses. Signaling pathways, especially those involving phytohormones like abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, and ethylene, regulate stress-responsive gene expression and metabolic changes. ROS and calcium signaling play a crucial role in modulating stress perception and subsequent responses, thereby influencing metabolic fluxes and the biosynthetic pathways of specialized metabolites such as flavonoids, alkaloids, and terpenoids. The integration of transcriptomics and metabolomics improves our comprehension of the regulatory networks that control stress resilience. Recent progress in high-throughput metabolomic profiling, along with bioinformatics techniques, enables the discovery of crucial metabolic biomarkers and the signaling interactions that contribute to stress tolerance. Grasping these intricate interactions yields fresh perspectives on plant adaptive strategies and presents possible pathways for creating stress-resilient crops by genetic and metabolic engineering. This review highlights the importance of metabolomics and signaling pathways in driving metabolic diversification, highlighting their critical role in bolstering plant resilience in the face of environmental challenges. Future investigations that incorporate multi-omics strategies will deepen our understanding of the complex regulatory mechanisms governing plant stress responses, paving the way for advancements in sustainable agriculture and crop enhancement.