Multidimensional roles of flavonoids in background of Gossypium hirsutum

Abstract

Anthocyanins are known as the central players in kingdom Planta, elucidating their major role in various abiotic and biotic stresses including physiological events such as plant growth, development and defense responses. Plants synthesize a wide range of chemically diverse secondary metabolites that are distinctively important industrial biochemical compounds. The elucidation of regulatory mechanisms by flavonoids could facilitate the generation of new transgenic cotton varieties along the rational to increase fiber characteristics and yield at the verge of auxin transport. The anthocyanin gene expression and its structural genes encoding enzymes have already been explored in many ornamental flowers. But its particular role in crop plant stress regulatory mechanism is yet to be explored. This brief review summarizes the role of flavonoids against various abiotic factors including drought, light/ultraviolet (UV) stress, water scarcity, temperature variations and so on in the background of cotton crop. These factors adversely affect the growth and productivity of the crops. Moreover, information of the flavonoids metabolic interactions in relation to cotton fiber characteristics still needs to be unrevealed.

Keywords

• secondary metabolites
• flavonoids
• pigmentation
• stress tolerance
• fiber modeling
• antioxidants