Regulation of Metabolites by Nutrients in Plants

TARIQ, AKASH; ZENG, FANJIANG; GRACIANO, CORINA; ULLAH, ABD; SADIA, SEHRISH; AHMED, ZEESHAN; MURTAZA, GHULAM; ISMOILOV, KHASAN; ZHANG, ZHIHAO

Plant ionomics

Wiley & Sons

Lugar: Hoboken, New Jersey; Año: 2023; p. 1 - 18

Mineral nutrition plays a vital role in plant growth and metabolism. To date seventeen essential nutrients have been identified which are direly needed for plant growth. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are among the most important macronutrients whereas micronutrients include chloride (Cl), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), cobalt (Co), molybdenum (Mo), and nickel (Ni). Each mineral carries equal importance and a deficiency of any of them can affect growth and disrupt the plant life cycle. Plants are treasure troves of bioactive metabolites which essentially regulate nearly all fundamental processes like growth, reproduction and environmental responses. These plant metabolites are divided into two major categories i.e. primary metabolites (PMs) and secondary metabolites (SMs) according to their functions. There is a strong linkage between plant metabolites and mineral nutrients. Biosynthesis of metabolites involves various metabolic pathways such as absorption, carbon assimilation, photosynthesis, protoplast formation, respiration, transpiration, translocation, and storage. These pathways are regulated by mineral nutrients available in different forms in the soil solution. N is necessary for the biosynthesis of various PMs (i.e., amino acids, chlorophyll, nucleic acids, lipids, proteins, and enzymes) and SMs (i.e., flavonoids and phenoliccompounds), P is important for sugar phosphates, phospholipids, DNA, RNA, and nucleotide synthesis as well as actively involved in energy metabolism. K mediates the synthesis of sugars, amino acids, organic acids and antioxidants and also plays many regulatory roles. Similarly micronutrients (S, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Mn, B, Cl) also regulate the synthesis of wide array of primary and secondary metabolites such as proteins, amino acids, sugars, flavonoids, phytohormones, organic acids, vitamins, antioxidants, glucosinolates and various co factors which have crucial role in plant growth and development. Availability and composition of mineral nutrients have a profound effect on the type and amount of PMs and SMs produced. So there lies an increased interest in unraveling the regulatory roles of mineral nutrients in the biosynthesis of plant metabolites. Therefore, this chapter specifically aims to improve our understanding regarding the regulatory roles of mineral nutrients in the biosynthesis of plant metabolites.