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News Release 07-134
Scientists to Sick Plants: Take Two Doses of an Aspirin-Like Hormone and Call Me in the Morning
Discovery could lead to development of crops with enhanced yield, heightened immunity and reduced need for pesticides
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When a plant is infected by a pathogen, a plant hormone called salicylic acid (SA) activates defenses locally. Some of this SA is converted by an enzyme known as SAMT into an aspirin-like compound called methyl salicylate (MeSA) that travels to uninfected parts of the plant and thereby activates a plant-wide immune response. But some SA at the infection site binds to an enzyme called salicylic acid binding protein 2 (SABP2). This binding prevents the enzyme from converting SA at the infection site into biologically inactive MeSA.
Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation
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Dan Klessig, Sang-Wook Park and Evans Kaimoyo examine a tobacco plant that was infected with tobacco mosiac virus during their study; their study lead to identification of an elusive signal for triggering plant-wide immunity. The signal is methyl salicylate, an aspirin-like compound.
Credit: Dan Klessig, Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research
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