Integration of Plasma Membrane and Nuclear Signaling in Elicitor Regulation of Plant Secondary Metabolism

Abstract

The plant kingdom represents a valuable source of natural products of commercial interest. These compounds, named secondary metabolites, are not essential for the survival of plants, but confer them some advantages that allow adaptation to changes in their environment. Nevertheless, yields of secondary metabolites are low for commercial purposes, so it has become important to design strategies for increasing their production. Plants manage to adapt to physical changes in their environment, defending themselves against pathogen attack or herbivore wounding. Such aggressive stimuli, also known as elicitors, initiate signaling metabolic cascades that induce accumulation of certain secondary metabolites. Progress has been recently achieved in the understanding of signaling events originating from elicitation and related transcriptional regulation. These advances will allow maneuvering expression of key enzymes implicated in biosynthetic pathways of secondary metabolites, thereby enhancing their accumulation.