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Elicitation and regulation of plant specialized metabolism

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Closed

Although primary metabolism is indispensable, universal and conserved, specialized metabolism in plants is unique, diverse, adaptive and also indispensable for the survival of the plant as a whole. Compared to primary metabolism, one of the unique and usual features of specialized metabolism is low metabolic activity. Therefore, in order to study the regulation of specialized metabolism, the metabolic pathways need to be amplified. One of the empirical approaches widely used for such study is elicitation.

Elicitors can be broadly defined as compounds of biological origin involved in plant-microbe interactions (biotic elicitors) which induce changes in plant specialized metabolism. This concept has however been broadened to include abiotic elicitors such as UV and specific wavelength spectral light, osmotic stress, wounding and heavy metal ions also. Treatment of plants or tissue cultures with elicitors frequently leads to enhanced accumulation of plant specialized metabolites. Although elicitation was thought to be based on activation of defense and/or stress responses and specialized metabolites in plants, limited mechanistic insights are available on the regulation of early events of elicitor responses for specialized metabolism in non-model plants.

This article collection features works that elucidate the molecular events of elicitor responses in plants and plant cell/organ cultures. It will broadly cover specialized (secondary) metabolism, their origin from primary metabolism, regulation, and modulation through elicitation and supplementation of plant growth substances. Study of specialized metabolism in aromatic, medicinal, nutraceutical, horticultural and food crops - both ex vitro and in vitro are also welcome.

Editors

  • Sumita Jha Sumita Jha , 

    Sumita Jha

    Professor Sumita Jha , FNASc., FWAST, received her M.Sc. (1975) and Ph.D. (1981) from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata. She joined the same University as UGC Research Scientist in 1985 and as a faculty member in Botany in 1990. She has been involved in teaching courses on plant biology, molecular cytogenetics, and biotechnology. Prof Jha’s group has developed transgenic cell and organ cultures in a number of rare, endangered indigenous medicinal plants for production of high-value pharmaceuticals. She has published more than 170 research papers including reviews, book chapters and edited two books published by the Springer.

  • Adinpunya Mitra Adinpunya Mitra  &

    Adinpunya Mitra

    Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

  • Neelam Sangwan Neelam Sangwan

    Neelam Sangwan

    Central University of Haryana

Articles (4 in this collection)