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Strategies to Modulate Specialized Metabolism in Mediterranean Crops: From Molecular Aspects to Field

2021; Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; Volume: 22; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3390/ijms22062887

1661-6596

Raffaella Balestrini, Cecilia Brunetti, Maria Cammareri, Sofia Caretto, Valeria Cavallaro, Eleonora Cominelli, Monica De Palma, Teresa Docimo, Giovanna Giovinazzo, Silvana Grandillo, Franca Locatelli, Erica Lumini, Dario Paolo, Cristina Patanè, Francesca Sparvoli, Marina Tucci, Elisa Zampieri,

Plant Gene Expression Analysis

Plant specialized metabolites (SMs) play an important role in the interaction with the environment and are part of the plant defense response. These natural products are volatile, semi-volatile and non-volatile compounds produced from common building blocks deriving from primary metabolic pathways and rapidly evolved to allow a better adaptation of plants to environmental cues. Specialized metabolites include terpenes, flavonoids, alkaloids, glucosinolates, tannins, resins, etc. that can be used as phytochemicals, food additives, flavoring agents and pharmaceutical compounds. This review will be focused on Mediterranean crop plants as a source of SMs, with a special attention on the strategies that can be used to modulate their production, including abiotic stresses, interaction with beneficial soil microorganisms and novel genetic approaches.