Regulation of stilbene biosynthesis in plants.

MAIN CONCLUSION: This review analyzes the advances in understanding the natural signaling pathways and environmental factors regulating stilbene biosynthesis. We also discuss the studies reporting on stilbene content and repertoire in plants. Stilbenes, including the most-studied stilbene resveratrol, are a family of phenolic plant secondary metabolites that have been the subject of intensive research due to their valuable pharmaceutical effects and contribution to plant disease resistance. Understanding the natural mechanisms regulating stilbene biosynthesis in plants could be useful for both the development of new plant protection strategies and for commercial stilbene production. In this review, we focus on the environmental factors and cell signaling pathways regulating stilbene biosynthesis in plants and make a comparison with the regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis. This review also analyzes the recent data on stilbene biosynthetic genes and summarizes the available studies reporting on both stilbene content and stilbene composition in different plant families.