SWEET JAZ · Tackling plant growth-defense trade-offs by characterizing the role of PRL1 in Jasmonate responses

Tackling plant growth-defense trade-offs by characterizing the role of PRL1 in Jasmonate responses

One of the key challenges beyond the 21st century will be food security. The entire human population is directly dependent on plants as vital sources of oxygen, food, medicines and other economically important products. Abiotic and biotic challenges pose serious risks to plant growth and crop production world-wide. Therefore, understanding how plants activate defense responses against environmental stresses represents a tremendous opportunity to improve plant yield and meet the agricultural output goals to feed the predicted ~10 billion human population by 2050. Insect pests in particular pose a significant threat to plant yield, crop production and food supply. Recent reports are alarming across the globe, with predictions that the occurring climate change and pesticide resistance will nearly double crop losses due to insects. The plant hormone Jasmonate (JA) is essential to protect plants against insect herbivory, mechanical wounding and necrotrophic pathogens. Upon these challenges, JA hormone levels increase and induce defense responses while stunting growth. Hence, understanding how plants balance growth-defense trade-offs during environmental stresses represents a tremendous opportunity to improve plant yield and meet the global need for increased food production. Through an extensive genetic approach in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the host lab has identified PLEIOTROPIC REGULATORY LOCUS 1 (PRL1) as new putative regulator of the JA pathway. PRL1 is also known for its role in sugar signaling and metabolism, representing a probable integration node for balancing growth during stress responses. Hence, SWEET-JAZ aimed to characterize the role of PRL1 in activating the JA pathway and uncover how are sugar and defense signaling integrated during insect and fungal attacks. Specifically, the project used state-of-the-art cell biology, biochemistry and molecular biology approaches to answer the following questions: 1. How does PRL1 regulate JA responses? 2. How does PRL1 impact cell-type specific JA-mediated defense strategies? 3. How are PRL1- and JA-signaling pathways integrated? 4. What is the role of PRL1 in plant defense responses against insect herbivory and fungal pathogens? Overall, the longer term goal of the project is to contribute towards solving the current food security issues by providing novel targets and strategies granting plant resilience.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union