Environmental Factors Regulate Plant Secondary Metabolites

Abstract

Abiotic environmental stresses can alter plant metabolism, leading to inhibition or promotion of secondary metabolites. Although the crucial roles of these compounds in plant acclimation and defense are well known, their response to climate change is poorly understood. As the effects of climate change have been increasing, their regulatory aspects on plant secondary metabolism becomes increasingly important. Effects of individual climate change components, including high temperature, elevated carbon dioxide, drought stress, enhanced ultraviolet-B radiation, and their interactions on secondary metabolites, such as phenolics, terpenes, and alkaloids, continue to be studied as evidence mounting. It is important to understand those aspects of secondary metabolites that shape the success of certain plants in the future. This review aims to present and synthesize recent advances in the effects of climate change on secondary metabolism, delving from the molecular aspects to the organismal effects of an increased or decreased concentration of these compounds. A thorough analysis of the current knowledge about the effects of climate change components on plant secondary metabolites should provide us with the required information regarding plant performance under climate change conditions. Further studies should provide more insight into the understanding of multiple environmental factors effects on plant secondary metabolites.

An insight into the impact of climate factors associated with altitude on wheat volatiles’ fingerprints at harvest using multivariate statistical analysis

“…Another insightful climatic index was ASR in durum wheat, which was positively correlated with four terpenes: α ‐thujene, cis ‐ β ‐farnesene, p ‐cymene, and the trans ‐calamenene mentioned above. These results were in accordance with those reported by several authors focusing on different plants and summarized in a recent review underlining the influence on secondary metabolites as response to high and low light intensity 36 …”

“…Drought stress associated with long dry spells (CDD) strongly affected the common wheat VOC profile, followed by indices related to temperature. Other authors reported that phenolics and terpenoids exhibited high variability in response to drought and about the 60% of these terpenes increased in response to drought stress 36 . However, PLS‐R analysis calculated only one out five important terpenes increasing with CDD, suggesting a slightly divergent trend in comparison with the literature.…”

“…It has been suggested that, under conditions of thermal stress, terpenes could have a protective effect resulting from several biological mechanisms, for example, stabilization of the cellular structure or prevention of lipid oxidation in the chloroplast 36 …”

Morphological, anatomical, phytochemical, and phylogenetic evidences reveal into a new Derris species (Fabaceae) with rare flowers and reddish midribs, from Peninsular Thailand

“…Intra-specific variation of chemical constituents could be found among populations, but it was a common phenomenon found generally in other researches ( Chen et al 2015;Saraf and Shinede 2016;Saraf and Shinede 2018) . Production and accumulation of phytochemicals are not only dependent on the plant species but also the environmental factors (Qaderi et al 2023), which were concerned in this study. The roots and stems were thus collected from the plants which were more or less the same age, same size and in the same rainy season.…”

Phytochemical Analysis of Anacamptis coriophora Plant Cultivated Using Ex Vitro Symbiotic Propagation

“…These secondary metabolites also play significant roles in human society as valuable compounds for use in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and nutraceuticals. [25,26] As it is known, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is more sensitive, rapid, and environmentally friendly compared to other chemical methods. At the same time, it is a technique that not only provides qualitative and quantitative information about the chemical structure but also provides information about the molecular conformation and the interaction between neighboring molecules.…”