Upregulated jasmonate signaling shifts Arabidopsis microbiota interactions and stress adaptations through a positive feedback loop.
Lu TT, Isip M, Han CJ, Shih HJ, Syukur S
Plant Signaling
The soil microbes clinging to your vegetable roots are a delicate community — and this research reveals that a plant's own stress hormones can accidentally evict the beneficial members while trying to fight off the bad ones, trading growth for defense in ways that might explain why stressed garden plants seem to spiral.
Plants talk to their root microbes using chemical signals, and one of those signals — a stress hormone called jasmonate — turns out to be a double-edged sword. When researchers found a plant with this hormone permanently cranked up, it had a messier, unbalanced root microbiome and grew poorly even without any obvious threat. It fought off pathogens better, but at the cost of normal growth and the ability to handle salty soil.
Key Findings
An Arabidopsis mutant with constitutively elevated jasmonate signaling showed increased total microbial load and microbiota-dependent growth defects compared to wild-type plants.
The same dysbiosis-like phenotypes were reproduced in normal wild-type plants treated with chemical jasmonate inducers, confirming the pathway drives the effect through a positive feedback loop.
Elevated jasmonate signaling reduced pathogen load but came at a dual cost: impaired plant growth and reduced salt stress tolerance, demonstrating a direct trade-off between defense and other stress adaptations.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists discovered that a plant hormone called jasmonate acts as a master switch controlling how Arabidopsis (a common lab plant) interacts with its soil microbiome. When this hormone signal gets stuck in the 'on' position, the plant repels harmful pathogens but also loses beneficial microbes, stunts its own growth, and becomes less tolerant of salt stress.
Abstract Preview
The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana hosts diverse microbial communities collectively known as the microbiota. The plant microbiota is generally taxonomically structured and, in many cases, confers...
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