The jasmonate pathway. (Viewpoint)

Plants are faced with many of the same problems as animals--a need for regulation of metabolic processes and reproduction and for defense against enemies. Jasmonates in plants serve key roles in gene and metabolic regulation, defense, responses to trauma, reproduction, and possibly communication. Some remarkable features of plant responses, such as production of repellent volatiles as a defense against herbivorous insects, or the massive transcriptional reprogramming that occurs in response to wounding, are under the control of the jasmonate pathway. Details of the jasmonate signaling pathway are currently at the center of active research that is generating exciting results. The Jasmonate Biochemical Pathway at the STKE Connections Maps is designed to present and keep pace with these developments.
Jasmonates (1, 2) are potent lipid regulators in plants that mediate responses to both mechanical trauma and pathogenesis (3-5), and play pivotal roles in reproduction (6) and metabolic regulation (7).The [...]