Jasmonate Signaling Pathway Modulates Plant Defense, Growth, and Their Trade-Offs

Abstract

Lipid-derived jasmonates (JAs) play a crucial role in a variety of plant development and defense mechanisms. In recent years, significant progress has been made toward understanding the JA signaling pathway. In this review, we discuss JA biosynthesis, as well as its core signaling pathway, termination mechanisms, and the evolutionary origin of JA signaling. JA regulates not only plant regeneration, reproductive growth, and vegetative growth but also the responses of plants to stresses, including pathogen as well as virus infection, herbivore attack, and abiotic stresses. We also focus on the JA signaling pathway, considering its crosstalk with the gibberellin (GA), auxin, and phytochrome signaling pathways for mediation of the trade-offs between growth and defense. In summary, JA signals regulate multiple outputs of plant defense and growth and act to balance growth and defense in order to adapt to complex environments.

The Influence of Exogenous Jasmonic Acid on the Biosynthesis of Steroids and Triterpenoids in Calendula officinalis Plants and Hairy Root Culture

“…Jasmonates are involved in a hormone-based defense mechanism against pathogens and herbivores, and act like “switchers” between general and specialized metabolisms, thereby redirecting metabolic flow toward defense compound biosynthesis and making them efficient elicitors in many in vitro and in vivo studies for valuable metabolite acquisition. However, various reports have indicated that plant defense response activation is often associated with growth inhibition [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Even though it remains unclear how growth rate is coupled with metabolic changes during jasmonate-induced defense mechanisms, this phenomenon has been reported for many plant species, such as sunflower ( Helianthus annuus ), tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ), soybean ( Glycine max ), rice ( Oryza sativa ), and Hypericum perforatum [ 32 , 33 , 34 ].…”

Increasing the activities of protective enzymes is an important strategy to improve resistance in cucumber to powdery mildew disease and melon aphid under different infection/infestation patterns

“…Pathogen infection and feeding by phytophagous insects can cause complex physiological and chemical changes in the host plants ( Chen et al, 2019 ; Li et al, 2022 ; Naik et al, 2022 ). For example, the ability of plants to resist pathogen infection is enhanced by regulating photosynthesis, the synthesis of basic or secondary metabolites, and the activities of protective enzymes ( Forkner et al, 2004 ; Chomel et al, 2016 ; Franco et al, 2019 ; Zhang Q. C. et al, 2022b ).…”

Tuning the Wavelength: Manipulation of Light Signaling to Control Plant Defense

“…The phytohormone jasmonic acid (JA) plays a central role in plant defense responses against necrotrophic fungal pathogens and insect feeding and is usually considered to be antagonistic to SA-driven responses [ 21 ]. The JA signaling pathway’s functions in defense, growth, and development is well characterized and reviewed [ 22 , 23 ]. Briefly, JA perception leads to the activation of signaling cascades that activate key transcription factors (e.g., NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2 (NACs)) and the master coordinator basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH), MYELOCYTOMATOSIS (MYC2) [ 24 ].…”