ReviewPlant physiology2020
Plant Secondary Metabolites as Defenses, Regulators, and Primary Metabolites: The Blurred Functional Trichotomy.
Review in Plant physiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 475 papers.
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Who cites it
475 citing papers in PubMed.
- MicroRNA858a antagonistically regulates plant response to concurrent biotic and abiotic stresses.Plant signaling & behavior · 2026Article
- Chitosan activates a sequential CaPlant signaling & behavior · 2026Article
- Metabolic reprogramming in plant defense: linking signaling networks to metabolomics-driven insights.Plant signaling & behavior · 2026Review
- Climate Shapes Elevational Gradients in Concentration, Composition, and Functional Diversity of Willow Metabolomes.Plant, cell & environment · 2026Article
- Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Activity of an Endophytic Fungus, Daldinia sp. Isolated From Avicennia officinalis.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Article
- PmWRKY-10 Enhances Pine Wilt Disease Resistance by Promoting Pinosylvin Monomethyl Ether Biosynthesis Through Transcriptional Activation of PmPMT2-1.Molecular plant pathology · 2026Article
- Effect of selenium hyperaccumulation on the root endophytic and rhizosphere microbiome of two Astragalus species.Plant biology (Stuttgart, Germany) · 2026Article
- Structurally diverse acylsugars on wild tomatillo fruit surfaces.Horticulture research · 2026Article
- Overview of molecular mechanisms underlying stress responses; signaling pathways and secondary metabolite synthesis in plants.Plant molecular biology · 2026Review
- Discovery of the rosalexin pathway expands the modular network of maize diterpenoid phytoalexins.Research square · 2026Article
- Drought Stress Mediated Changes in Food Crops: Mechanisms and Remediation Strategies.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Chemical Ontogeny in Plants: Developmental Dynamics of Specialized Metabolism and Implications for Ecology, Quality Control, and Bioprospecting.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Comparative Phytochemical Profiles and Antioxidant and Tyrosinase-Inhibitory Activities of Wild and In Vitro-DerivedPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Sinapoylglucose: malate sinapoyltransferase SNG1 negatively regulates drought resistance by crosstalk with abscisic acid signaling in Arabidopsis.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2026Article
- CsWRKY33 Integrates Immune Signalling and Metabolic Reprogramming to Enhance Tea Plant Resistance Against Colletotrichum camelliae.Plant, cell & environment · 2026Article
- Article
- Evaluating Causal Claims in Plant Developmental Metabolism: A When-Where-How Framework.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Single and Multiple Infestation by Coccoid Pests in Coffee Shape Plant Chemical Defenses and Interactions Across Trophic Levels.Journal of agricultural and food chemistry · 2026Article
- Green and Energy-Efficient Post-Harvest Enhancement: Low-DoseAntioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- When, where, and why specialised metabolites are produced: inferring function from expression control.Essays in biochemistry · 2026Review
415 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The plant kingdom produces hundreds of thousands of low molecular weight organic compounds. Based on the assumed functions of these compounds, the research community has classified them into three overarching groups: primary metabolites, which are directly required for plant growth; secondary (or specialized) metabolites, which mediate plant-environment interactions; and hormones, which regulate organismal processes and metabolism. For decades, this functional trichotomy of plant metabolism has shaped theory and experimentation in plant biology. However, exact biochemical boundaries between these different metabolite classes were never fully established. A new wave of genetic and chemical studies now further blurs these boundaries by demonstrating that secondary metabolites are multifunctional; they can function as potent regulators of plant growth and defense as well as primary metabolites sensu lato. Several adaptive scenarios may have favored this functional diversity for secondary metabolites, including signaling robustness and cost-effective storage and recycling. Secondary metabolite multifunctionality can provide new explanations for ontogenetic patterns of defense production and can refine our understanding of plant-herbivore interactions, in particular by accounting for the discovery that adapted herbivores misuse plant secondary metabolites for multiple purposes, some of which mirror their functions in plants. In conclusion, recent work unveils the limits of our current functional classification system for plant metabolites. Viewing secondary metabolites as integrated components of metabolic networks that are dynamically shaped by environmental selection pressures and transcend multiple trophic levels can improve our understanding of plant metabolism and plant-environment interactions.
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