Plant secondary metabolites are the outcomes of the adaptation of plants to ecological environment changes in the long-term evolution. The accumulation of secondary metabolites not only affects the evolutionary adaptability of plants, but also affects the quality and yield of some medicinal plants and crops. Therefore, it is an indispensable research field to understand further the mechanism of regulating secondary metabolism accumulation in plant science. Recent studies have confirmed that some signaling pathways are involved in regulating the accumulation of plant secondary metabolites, containing the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling, epigenomic regulatory pathway, plant hormone, and some transcriptional factors. This review summarizes the latest molecular mechanisms and regulatory networks regulating secondary metabolism accumulation, and discusses the difficulties in future research.

植物次生代谢产物是植物在长期进化过程中适应生态环境变化的产物。次级代谢产物的积累不仅影响植物的进化适应性，还影响一些药用植物和农作物的品质和产量。因此，进一步了解植物次生代谢积累的调控机制是植物科学不可或缺的研究领域。最近的研究证实，一些信号通路参与调节植物次级代谢产物的积累，包括泛素-蛋白酶体通路、丝裂原活化蛋白激酶（MAPK）信号通路、表观基因组调控通路、植物激素和一些转录因子。