Nutrient sensing

Gene

Cell biology

Biology

Methyl jasmonate

Endocrinology

Metabolism

Signal transduction

Biochemistry

Botany

Computational biology

Secondary metabolism

Physics

Arabidopsis

Astronomy

Biosynthesis

Mutant

Energy metabolism

Primary (astronomy)

Hormone

Plant growth

Plant metabolism

Jasmonate

Current Opinion in Plant Biology

Over the years, jasmonates (JAs) have become recognized as one of the main plant hormones that regulate stress responses by activating defense programs and the production of specialized metabolites. High JA levels have been associated with reduced plant growth, supposedly as a result of the reallocation of carbon sources from primary growth to the biosynthesis of defense compounds. Recent advances suggest however that tight regulatory networks integrate several sensing pathways to steer plant metabolism, and thereby drive the trade-off between growth and defense. In this review, we discuss how JA influences primary metabolism and how it is connected to light-regulated processes, nutrient sensing and energy metabolism. Finally, we speculate that JA, in a conceptual parallelism with adrenaline for humans, overall boosts cellular processes to keep up with an increased metabolic demand during harsh times.

Jasmonate: A hormone of primary importance for plant metabolism