Nano Elicitors and Bioactive Plant Metabolites

Abstract

<div>Nature has given plants the ability to produce a wide variety of secondary</div><div>metabolites including alkaloids, phenolics, terpenoids and saponins. These metabolites</div><div>provide them a defense mechanism against biological and non-biological stress factors.</div><div>On the other hand, the same metabolites have proved to be effective against different</div><div>dreadful human diseases. The efficacy of such metabolites ranges from antimicrobial to</div><div>anticancerous effects. Bioactivity-guided characterization is one of the useful strategies</div><div>that have been employed to identify, purify and characterize active components. These</div><div>bioactive components have proved useful in future drug discovery. Elicitors are defined</div><div>as signaling metabolites with the ability to induce biochemical and physiological</div><div>processes in plants resulting in the activation of plants defense mechanisms. Elicitation</div><div>is a useful tool as it leads to the generation of stress conditions and hence the</div><div>accumulation of bioactive secondary metabolites in plants. Various strategies have</div><div>been adopted to enhance the production of bioactive secondary metabolites including</div><div>plant cell and tissue culture and use of signaling metabolites. Nowadays, nano-elicitors</div><div>have emerged as an effective tool to enhance the production of pharmacologically</div><div>important compounds. Various classes of nanoparticles (NPs) have been reported to be</div><div>utilized as nano-elicitors like metallic NPs, metallic oxide NPs and carbon nanotubes</div><div>with positive effects on phytochemical profile. The possible mechanism of</div><div>nanomaterials as elicitors is the interaction with plant genomes by increasing the</div><div>expression level of genes involved in the biosynthesis of active metabolites. Despite</div><div>triggering biosynthetic potential of plants, certain negative effects have been observed</div><div>in plants’ primary metabolism like lower chlorophyll content, a decrease in cell</div><div>viability, a decline in sugar content and suppressed seed germination. Thus, there is a</div><div>need to develop biocompatible nanoparticles for use as nanoelicitors in plants to avoid</div><div>the negative impacts of the used entities.</div>