Integrating Metabolome and Functional Data in Plant Pathology and Protection Studies

The dynamic interactions that are established between plant and microorganisms rely on complex mechanisms of recognition and defense. Primary metabolism has been traditionally implicated as a major target in several plant-pathogen interactions, but also critical changes in some pathways of secondary metabolism have been identified [1]. In the last decade, transcriptomics has largely contributed to decipher some of the cellular pathways that are involved in recognition and defense mechanisms between hosts-microorganisms interactions. For example, infection has been associated with differential regulation of genes involving energy processing (eg., up-regulation of genes related with energy production while down-regulation of genes associated with assimilatory processes as photosynthesis or chlorophyll biosynthesis). These and other transcriptomic findings contributed to reevaluate the role of some metabolic pathways during host-pathogen interactions, namely at modulating signal transduction cascades [2].