Secondary metabolism produces a large number of specialized compounds that do not aid in the growth and development of plants but are required for the plant to survive in its environment. Secondary metabolism is connected to primary metabolism by using building blocks and biosynthetic enzymes derived from primary metabolism. Primary metabolism governs all basic physiological processes that allow a plant to grow and set seeds, by translating the genetic code into proteins, carbohydrates, and amino acids
Plants spent a considerable amount of their metabolic reserves to defend themselves, balancing their available resources between primary (growth and reproduction) and secondary (defence) metabolism. These metabolic costs arise from the complex defence machinery mounted by plants at level of genes, proteins and secondary metabolites. In other terms, defence responses may have an impact on the plant fitness, thus resulting limiting for the species. In the last decades, emphasis has been paid to bioactive secondary metabolites in medicinal and food plants, possibly because of their healthy potential for humans. A huge number of in vitro and in vivo studies documented antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antitumoral, cardio- and neuroprotective activities of different phytochemicals, including phenylpropanoids, isoprenoids, alkaloids, glucosinolates, betalains and others. In this view, priming plants for improving secondary metabolite biosynthesis may represent a reliable strategy to meet plant defence and human nutrition, with a number of elicitors available in agricultural practice and able to stimulate accumulation of bioactives in plant tissues and products.
We invite investigators to submit both original research and review articles that explore all the aspects of plant secondary metabolism and its regulation, at gene, protein and metabolic levels.