Plant Metabolites Involved in Plant–Pathogen Interactions

Abstract

Plants constantly confront different pathogens and undergo stress. To overcome such hurdles, plants produce primary and secondary metabolites. Primary metabolites are essential for the growth and development of plant and secondary metabolites are vital for plant survival by providing resistance against various pathogens and maintaining an elegant stability with the environment. Plants produce a huge number of metabolites, and many of such metabolites have yet to be identified. For the analysis of these wide range of highly complex metabolites synthesized by the plants, various tools and techniques are required for the study of metabolomics. Study of plant metabolomics comprises of sample preparation or extraction of bioactive molecules from the plants, detection and identification of the metabolites, and data processing and statistical analysis of the identified metabolites. Modern technologies used for the study of plant metabolomics includes metabolic fingerprinting, metabolite profiling and targeted and non-targeted detection analysis. Starting with the definition of primary and secondary metabolites, we aimed to focus on the behavior of different metabolites during plant–pathogen interaction and to finally concentrate on different tools and techniques, which are required for the identification and analysis of metabolites. With the help of current high-resolution mass spectrometers it has become quite feasible to identify low-molecular-mass metabolites. Efforts are made to develop computational tools for the identification of unknown metabolites and to develop mass spectral databases which will provide an authentic reference for the identified compounds.