damp-signaling
DAMP (Damage-Associated Molecular Pattern) signaling refers to the process by which plants release endogenous molecules from damaged or stressed cells that are recognized by pattern recognition receptors to trigger immune responses. This signaling pathway is critical for plant defense, enabling rapid activation of local and systemic immunity without pathogen invasion — allowing plants to respond to wounding, herbivory, or abiotic stress. Understanding DAMP signaling helps researchers decode how plants integrate environmental damage cues into coordinated protective responses at the molecular level.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-04-29
When plants are wounded, they release two chemical alarm signals — extracellular ATP and the amino acid glutamic acid — that activate largely separate defense pathways depending on which tissue is damaged. Unexpectedly, the glutamic acid pathway suppresses the ATP pathway, revealing that plant wound signaling is more layered and self-regulating than previously understood.
Extracellular ATP and L-glutamic acid trigger almost entirely non-overlapping sets of wound-response genes in distant tissues, despite both being released during injury.
Reactive oxygen species production after injury in non-vascular tissues depended primarily on ATP receptors (P2K1/P2K2), while vascular tissue injury responses depended primarily on glutamic acid receptors (GLR3.3/GLR3.6).
Plants lacking both glutamic acid receptors showed a significantly enhanced reactive oxygen species response to ATP, demonstrating that the glutamic acid signaling pathway actively suppresses the ATP signaling pathway.
