agronomy Review Plant Secondary Metabolite Biosynthesis and Transcriptional Regulation in Response to Biotic and Abiotic Stress Conditions Rahmatullah Jan 1,2,† , Sajjad Asaf 3,† , Muhammad Numan 4, Lubna 5 and Kyung-Min Kim 1,2,* 1 Division of Plant Biosciences, School of Applied Biosciences, College of Agriculture & Life Science, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea;
[email protected] 2 Costal Agriculture Research Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea 3 Natural and Medical Science Research Center, University of Nizwa, Nizwa 616, Oman;
[email protected] 4 Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA;
[email protected] 5 Department of Botany, Garden Campus, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan 23200, Pakistan;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] † These authors contribute equally to this manuscript. Abstract: Plant secondary metabolites (SMs) play important roles in plant survival and in creating ecological connections between other species. In addition to providing a variety of valuable natural products, secondary metabolites help protect plants against pathogenic attacks and environmental stresses. Given their sessile nature, plants must protect themselves from such situations through ac- cumulation of these bioactive compounds. Indeed, secondary metabolites act as herbivore deterrents, barriers against pathogen invasion, and mitigators of oxidative stress. The accumulation of SMs Citation: Jan, R.; Asaf, S.; Numan, are highly dependent on environmental factors such as light, temperature, soil water, soil fertility, M.; Lubna; Kim, K.-M. Plant and salinity. For most plants, a change in an individual environmental factor can alter the content Secondary Metabolite Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites even if other factors remain constant.