Editorial: The chemo-biological language of plants: exploring the diversity of specialized metabolites

Plants speak different “languages”. Plant languages are composed of different chemo-biological words differently biosynthesized depending on genetic backgrounds and response to the surrounding environment. The different range of molecules synthetized is also a success of the activity of the photosynthetic apparatus. By harnessing the energy of light, plants are capable to produce primary or “common” precursors that fuel numerous biochemical pathways. A strategy to overcome the limits of a sessile nature. In fact, plants produce a multitude of compounds, often species-specific, which play important ecological roles; substances with different biological properties produced to cope with stresses and which often become nutrients or medicines for humans and animals. Six papers with previously unpublished results on the chemobiological language of plants have been published in this Research Topic. Two of these reported the diversification of chemical profile based on the developmental stage of the plant or the analytical processes used, while the remaining studies unveiled new biosynthetic steps important for the production of metabolites involved in the interaction with the environment.