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. 2013 May 24:4:155.
doi: 10.3389/fpls.2013.00155. eCollection 2013.

Disease resistance or growth: the role of plant hormones in balancing immune responses and fitness costs

Nicolas Denancé  1 , Andrea Sánchez-Vallet, Deborah Goffner, Antonio Molina
Affiliations

Disease resistance or growth: the role of plant hormones in balancing immune responses and fitness costs

Nicolas Denancé et al. Front Plant Sci. .

Abstract

Plant growth and response to environmental cues are largely governed by phytohormones. The plant hormones ethylene, jasmonic acid, and salicylic acid (SA) play a central role in the regulation of plant immune responses. In addition, other plant hormones, such as auxins, abscisic acid (ABA), cytokinins, gibberellins, and brassinosteroids, that have been thoroughly described to regulate plant development and growth, have recently emerged as key regulators of plant immunity. Plant hormones interact in complex networks to balance the response to developmental and environmental cues and thus limiting defense-associated fitness costs. The molecular mechanisms that govern these hormonal networks are largely unknown. Moreover, hormone signaling pathways are targeted by pathogens to disturb and evade plant defense responses. In this review, we address novel insights on the regulatory roles of the ABA, SA, and auxin in plant resistance to pathogens and we describe the complex interactions among their signal transduction pathways. The strategies developed by pathogens to evade hormone-mediated defensive responses are also described. Based on these data we discuss how hormone signaling could be manipulated to improve the resistance of crops to pathogens.

Keywords: abscisic acid; auxin; hormone crosstalk; pathogens; salicylic acid; trade-off; virulence factor.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Decoy strategies elaborated by pathogens and pests to interfere with plant hormone biosynthesis/signaling pathways. Phytopathogenic bacteria, phytoplasmas, fungi, and oomycetes secrete various effectors inside plant cells during infectious process. Once in the host cells, some effectors specifically bind to (underlined), induce and/or decrease (arrows/crossed lines) target gene expression or protein activity. Consequently, ABA-, SA-, or Auxin-mediated defense mechanisms are activated/repressed.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Balancing plant immune responses and fitness costs. Plant disease resistance responses are induced upon recognition of PAMPs/effectors from pathogens and pests by plant PRR proteins. This recognition modulates plant hormonal homeostasis and transcriptional reprograming of defensive genes. The activation of these inducible resistance responses (PTI and/or ETI) negatively regulates the expression of developmental-associated genes impacting on plant fitness costs. Effectors from pathogens interfere with hormonal balance and the activation of PTI and ETI. Pathogens can also negatively impact plant growth and developmental-associated processes (transcriptional expression of genes, negative regulation of signaling pathways, etc.; see text for details). Positive and negative interactions are indicated by arrows and squares, respectively. GA, gibberellic acid; BR, brassinosteroids.
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