Metabolomics Profiling as a Powerful Tool to Elucidate Plant Responses to Drought Stress: Mechanisms, Signaling, and Resilience Strategies

AbstractDrought stress is arguably the most significant abiotic factor limiting global agricultural productivity and ecosystem stability. As water availability decreases, plants undergo profound physiological, morphological, and biochemical transformations to mitigate cellular damage. Traditional physiological metrics, such as leaf water potential and stomatal conductance, provide macroscopic insights but often fail to capture the rapid, underlying biochemical shifts that occur at the cellular level. Metabolomics, the large-scale study of small molecules (metabolites) within a biological system, has emerged as a transformative approach in plant science. By providing a functional readout of the cellular state—reflecting the integration of genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic information—metabolomics allows for the identification of specific metabolic signatures associated with drought tolerance. This review explores the application of various metabolomics platforms (GC-MS, LC-MS, and NMR) in characterizing the metabolic reprogramming induced by water deficit. We categorize the response into primary metabolic shifts (carbohydrates, amino acids, and organic acids) and secondary metabolic inductions (phenolics, terpenoids, and alkaloids). Furthermore, we discuss the role of metabolomics in identifying biomarkers for drought resilience and its integration into multi-omics frameworks to facilitate the development of next-generation, climate-resilient crops.

کلیدواژه ها:

Metabolomics ، Drought Stress ، Secondary Metabolites ، Osmoprotectants ، Abiotic Stress ، Plant Resilience ، Mass Spectrometry ، Systems Biology.