The molecular basis of glandular trichome development and secondary metabolism in plants

Glandular trichomes are specialized structure derived from plant epidermal cell, which have various biological roles including mechanical defense due to their physical properties as well as biochemical defense by secretion of secondary metabolites, depending on the plant species. Glandular trichomes are divided to secretory glandular trichomes and non-secretory glandular trichomes, which are widely present in not only angiosperms, but also in some gymnosperms and bryophytes. There is growing interest in research on plant glandular trichomes, due to their enigmatic occurrence and development model and their critical resistance roles, which have showed potential scientific and practical significance. This results in the need for a review which could provide an integrated and comprehensive understanding of glandular trichomes development and secondary metabolism molecular mechanism in model plant Arabidopsis and other important plants species. This article not only introduced the classification, morphology, distribution and biological roles of glandular trichome, but also expounded the molecular mechanism of glandular trichome occurrence and development as well as glandular trichome secondary metabolism. These will provide a thorough understanding of glandular trichomes biological roles and molecular mechanism of development and secondary metabolism in plants.