# Cold Stress Responses and Adaptation Mechanisms in Moringa oleifera Lam.: A Metabolite-Centred Review

## TL;DR

This review explores how Moringa oleifera adapts to cold stress, focusing on the roles of metabolites and highlighting gaps in understanding its cold tolerance mechanisms.

## Contribution

The paper provides a metabolite-centered synthesis of cold stress adaptation in Moringa oleifera, identifying research gaps and future directions.

## Key findings

- Moringa's resilience is well-documented in tropical climates, but its cold stress adaptation is poorly understood.
- Primary and secondary metabolites play key roles in cold stress responses, but their specific functions in moringa remain under-characterized.
- Breeding for cold tolerance in moringa is underexplored, requiring integrative metabolite profiling and provenance selection.

## Abstract

Moringa oleifera Lam. (moringa) is a desirable crop for intensive cultivation because of its multiple uses in human and animal nutrition, medicine, and ecological applications. Its resilience and adaptability to various environmental conditions make it an attractive option for farmers seeking alternative cash crops that can thrive in challenging agricultural environments. While its resilience is well documented in tropical and subtropical climates, limited information exists on its growth dynamics and adaptation mechanisms to prolonged cold stress, which constrains its expansion and cultivation in temperate regions. This review synthesises current knowledge on cold stress adaptation mechanisms and the coordinated functional roles of primary and secondary metabolites in response to cold stress in plants, with a focus on moringa. Although considerable progress has been made in understanding morphological adjustments to cold stress in moringa plants, limited attention has been given to elucidating the physiological, metabolic, and genetic regulatory mechanisms underlying its cold-adaptive responses. Moreover, despite the potential roles of primary and secondary metabolites in coordinating protective functions against cold stress in plants, specific metabolites and their functional roles against cold stress remain insufficiently characterised in moringa. While genetic improvement and selective breeding have improved key agronomic traits, including growth rate, biomass yield, and nutritive value, breeding for enhanced cold stress tolerance remains insufficiently explored. Future studies should focus on integrative metabolite profiling, as well as the identification and selection of cold-tolerant provenances, to support the development of cold-tolerant gene pools to expand the cultivation range of moringa into temperate regions.