hormone-crosstalk
Hormone-crosstalk refers to the interactions and synergistic effects between different plant hormones as they regulate physiological processes. Understanding these interconnected signaling pathways is crucial for plant biology because it explains how plants coordinate complex developmental processes, stress responses, and environmental adaptations through integrated hormone regulation rather than isolated hormonal effects.
PubMed · 2026-02-19
Researchers identified how apple plants use salicylic acid signaling to produce red and purple pigments (anthocyanins), and discovered that this pathway communicates with another hormone system to fine-tune pigment production, which could improve apple quality and breeding.
Three proteins—NPR7, TGA6, and MYB1—form a regulatory module that activates anthocyanin biosynthetic genes in response to salicylic acid signaling.
NPR7 and MYB1 physically interact to enhance transcriptional activation of downstream anthocyanin genes and sustain pigment production.
The strigolactone pathway antagonizes anthocyanin biosynthesis by disrupting NPR7 protein complexes, revealing a crosstalk mechanism between two plant hormone pathways.
