Cross-talk between salicylate- and jasmonate-dependent induced defenses in Arabidopsis

Abstract

Plants possess inducible defense mechanisms to effectively combat invasion by microbial pathogens or attack by herbivorous insects. Research on defense signaling pathways revealed that induced defenses against pathogens and herbivores are regulated by a network of interconnecting signaling pathways in which the plant signal molecules salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene (ET) play a dominant role. In many cases, attack by pathogens or herbivores is associated with enhanced production of these hormones and a concomitant activation of distinct sets of defense-related genes. Moreover, exogenous application of SA, JA or ET often results in an enhanced level of resistance.