At adverse environmental conditions, plants produce various kinds of primary and secondary metabolites to protect themselves. Both primary and secondary metabolites play a significant role during the heat, drought, salinity, genotoxic and cold conditions. A multigene response is activated during the progression of these stresses in the plants which stimulate changes in various signaling molecules, amino acids, proteins, primary and secondary metabolites. Plant metabolism is perturbed because of either the inhibition of metabolic enzymes, shortage of substrates, excess demand for specific compounds or a combination of these factors. In this review, we aim to present how plants synthesize different kinds of natural products during the perception of various abiotic stresses. We also discuss how time-scale variable stresses influence secondary metabolite profiles, could be used as a stress marker in plants. This article has the potential to get the attention of researchers working in the area of quantitative trait locus mapping using metabolites as well as metabolomics genome-wide association.
Keywords: Environmental stress; Networks; Secondary metabolites; Signaling pathways; Transcription factors.