Unrevealing metabolomics for abiotic stress adaptation and tolerance in plants

The post-genomic era has witnessed several new possibilities to understand diverse functional aspects of plants quite precisely. From genomics to metabolomics and now phenomics, the complex interplay of these biological networks has been successfully elucidated. Abiotic stresses, such as drought, flooding, exposure to heavy metals and metalloids, and high or low temperature are foremost constraints in agriculture, and remains as the major reason for poor crop productivity and low yield globally. The primary aim of metabolomics is to identify final gene products, the metabolites, which serve as prospective markers (or traits) to comprehend abiotic stress adaptation and tolerance in plants. This review provides an overview on the application of metabolomics as a comprehensive tool for “Systems Biology Approach” to unravel the complex interaction of networks and components in plants towards abiotic stress adaptation and tolerance. © 2021, Korean Society of Crop Science (KSCS).