Conserved and Divergent: Salicylic Acid Biosynthesis and Signaling Pathways across the Plant Kingdom.
Liu Y, Wu M, Li X, Zhang Y
Plant Signaling
Understanding how plants naturally defend themselves against disease could help scientists breed crops that resist infections without needing as many pesticides — meaning healthier food and more resilient gardens.
Plants produce a natural chemical that acts like an alarm system, warning the plant to defend itself against invading germs. Scientists long assumed most plants used the same method as a common lab plant to make this chemical, but new research shows that the majority of plants — including food crops — use a completely different recipe. This changes how researchers think about boosting disease resistance in the plants we grow for food.
Key Findings
Most seed plants produce salicylic acid via a phenylalanine-derived pathway, not the isochorismate pathway previously considered the primary route.
The isochorismate pathway, established as the model in Arabidopsis, appears to be a recent evolutionary innovation limited to the Brassicales order — a narrow slice of the plant family tree.
Studies in tobacco relative Nicotiana benthamiana and rice helped reveal the complete alternative biosynthesis pathway, highlighting its widespread distribution across diverse plant lineages.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Plants use a chemical called salicylic acid as a key immune signal to fight off certain infections. This review reveals that most plants make this chemical through a different route than the well-studied lab plant Arabidopsis, overturning a long-held assumption about how plant immunity works.
Abstract Preview
Salicylic acid (SA) is a pivotal plant hormone that modulates immune responses in a pathogen lifestyle-dependent manner, typically amplifying defenses against biotrophic and hemibiotrophic pathogen...
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