ABSTRACT
Plants have evolved protective mechanisms in response to stress conditions in which the stress-associated (activated or suppressed) signalling pathways induce biosynthesis of metabolites to maintain their molecular and cellular activities. At specific stress conditions, the interacting internal (such as plant species, genotype, metabolite composition) and external (such as agricultural managements and stress conditions, e.g., severity and combination of different stresses) cues elicit biosynthesis of phytochemicals with health-promoting effects in both plant and human. The knowledge on the relationships and fine-tuned balance between phytochemicals (such as redox, hormones, glycine betaine, melatonin, proline, polyamines, γ-aminobutyric acid, organic acids, sugars, amino acids, and phenolic compounds), their interactive functional activities and crosstalk effects under different environmental conditions can be used to optimize plants responses during their whole life cycle by choosing the most effective multidisciplinary approaches from agricultural practices to genetic and metabolic engineering. Hence, this chapter provides information to optimize plant yield, quality, and stress responses by modifying metabolic interaction networks corresponding to plant genotypes and environmental (normal and particularly stressful) conditions that induce beneficial effects in plants and humans.
