Functional Metabolomics—A Useful Tool to Characterize Stress-Induced Metabolome Alterations Opening New Avenues towards Tailoring Food Crop Quality

Abstract

The breeding of stress-tolerant cultivated plants that would allow for a reduction in harvest losses and undesirable decrease in quality attributes requires a new quality of knowledge on molecular markers associated with relevant agronomic traits, on quantitative metabolic responses of plants to stress challenges, and on the mechanisms controlling the biosynthesis of these molecules. By combining metabolomics with genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics datasets a more comprehensive knowledge of the composition of crop plants used for food or animal feed is possible. In order to optimize crop trait developments, to enhance crop yields and quality, as well as to guarantee nutritional and health factors that provide the possibility to create functional food or feedstuffs, knowledge about the plants’ metabolome is crucial. Next to classical metabolomics studies, this review focuses on several metabolomics-based working techniques, such as sensomics, lipidomics, hormonomics and phytometabolomics, which were used to characterize metabolome alterations during abiotic and biotic stress in order to find resistant food crops with a preferred quality or at least to produce functional food crops.

Biotic and Abiotic Stress Responses in Crop Plants

“…Therefore, metabolic changes can be used in targeted breeding for specific agronomic traits such as stress resistance or food functions. In this context, Dawid and Hille provide a review on functional metabolomics and the analytical techniques used in this discipline [10]. They describe how metabolite profiles can be translated into stress resistance or desired sensory traits of the crop plant, but also discuss the need for orchestrated biological and structural characterizations of unidentified marker metabolites.…”

Stress and defense responses in plant secondary metabolites production

“…Stress response in plants comprises repertoire of molecular, cellular cross-talk and signaling responses initiated through the detection of specific or combined biotic or abiotic stress effect that may result in the induction of SM [58]. Plants immune system have evolved numerous stress detection mechanisms that includes transmembrane recognition (in response to evolving pathogen or microbial association molecular pattern), polymorphic NB-LRR protein production by most R-genes (to large extent inside cell) and production of SMs to cope with the stress situations, and thus, become remodeled to endure the condition [59, 60]. This may be achieved through influence on physiological processes in plant cells, triggered by signal transduction process to accommodate the stimulus involving adjustments in primary and SM that enable regulation of cell osmotic pressure, prevents cell components oxidation, pathogenic microbial growth and infection, and deter herbivores [11, 31, 60] through biochemical and physiological processes associated pathways regulation.…”

Analytical Methods for Detection of Plant Metabolomes Changes in Response to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

“…The plant reaction to stresses is based on specific strategies that may be different for different plant species and may depend on the stress nature and severity. Primary and secondary metabolites synthesized in plants play various roles in response to stress: they regulate osmotic pressure within the cells, prevent to oxidation of cell components, deter herbivores, and prevent infection and growth of pathogenic microorganisms [5]. These compounds are produced as a result of diverse physiological and biochemical processes occurring in a plant ontogenesis, so it is important to reveal the respective metabolic pathways involved in plant functioning during the life cycle and their regulation.…”