Plants have a backup stress alarm older than their main one
Song RF, Foyer CH, Liu WC
Plant Signaling
The tomato plant wilting under summer heat or the oak dropping leaves early during drought is running on a stress-signaling system that evolved in stages, and scientists are now finding the older, more primitive layer still doing work underneath the modern one.
Plants use a hormone called jasmonate to respond to wounds, pests, and stress, kind of like a pain signal. This study found that before that system evolved, plants relied on an even older method involving reactive oxygen molecules and a protein switch that flips on when exposed to those molecules. That ancient system is still present in modern plants, layered underneath the newer one, and scientists think tweaking it could help make crops tougher against stress.
Key Findings
The modern jasmonate signaling pathway (COI1-JAZ co-receptor and MYC2 transcription factor) is an evolutionary innovation unique to land plants
An older oxylipin-based signaling system using OPDA, dn-OPDA, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) predates the modern pathway and persists alongside it
A conserved redox-sensitive cysteine in 14-3-3 proteins like GRF8 gets chemically modified (sulfenylated), which releases MYC2 from inhibition and activates jasmonate signaling
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that plants have an ancient chemical stress-response system, using reactive molecules and a protein switch, that predates the more complex jasmonate hormone pathway found in modern land plants. Understanding this older backup system could help breeders engineer crops that handle stress better.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
The redox-phytohormone nexus, illustrated by the jasmonate paradigm.
Redox-sensitive protein switches and transcriptional networks are integral to phytohormone signaling networks. The jasmonate (JA) signaling pathway, which incorporates the coronatine insensitive 1 ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Targeted knockout of a host peroxisomal peptidase confers field resistance to...
The corn in your grocery store and the staple food keeping millions of East African families fed is under serious threat from a viral disease that can wipe o...
Arabidopsis (rockcress) is a genus of small flowering plants in the cabbage and mustard family, Brassicaceae. Arabidopsis species are native to temperate and subarctic Eurasia and North America, North Africa, and the mountains of eastern tropical Africa. This genus is of great interest since it c...