Plant response to heavy metal stress toxicity: the role of metabolomics and other omics tools

Metabolomic investigations offers a significant foundation for improved comprehension of the adaptability of plants to reconfigure the key metabolic pathways and their response to changing climatic conditions. Their application to ecophysiology and ecotoxicology help to assess potential risks caused by the contaminants, their modes of action and the elucidation of metabolic pathways associated with stress responses. Heavy metal stress is one of the most significant environmental hazards affecting the physiological and biochemical processes in plants. Metabolomic tools have been widely utilised in the massive characterisation of the molecular structure of plants at various stages for understanding the diverse aspects of the cellular functioning underlying heavy metal stress-responsive mechanisms. This review emphasises on the recent progressions in metabolomics in plants subjected to heavy metal stresses. Also, it discusses the possibility of facilitating effective management strategies concerning metabolites for mitigating the negative impacts of heavy metal contaminants on the growth and productivity of plants. Metabolomics is an excellent analytical profiling tool to understand the molecular network underpinning the operation of the numerous metabolic pathways present in plants. This review focuses on recent research that employed metabolomics and other omics platforms to obtain a thorough understanding of how plants respond to heavy metal stress and a detailed examination of the metabolic pathways that regulate them. A detailed picture of a cell's metabolic activities can be obtained via metabolomics, together with information on potential target pathways.