Crosstalk between GA and JA signaling mediates plant growth and defense

Abstract

Gibberellins (GAs) and jasmonates (JAs) are two types of essential phytohormones that control many aspects of plant growth and development in response to environmental and endogenous signals. GA regulates many essential plant developmental processes, while JA plays a dominant role in mediating plant response to stress. Recent studies have revealed that intensive crosstalk between GA and JA signaling is involved in both plant development and defense to biotic or abiotic stress. In particular, interaction between DELLAs and JA ZIM-domain (JAZ) proteins, which are key repressors in GA- and JA-signaling pathways, respectively, plays a key role in mediating the balance between plant growth and defense through modulating the activity of their interacting transcriptional factors in response to GA and JA signals. Here, we briefly review the recent progress in understanding the antagonistic and synergistic crosstalk between GA and JA signaling with a focus on the central role of DELLA-JAZ interaction in addressing the plant dilemma between "to grow" and "to defend" in response to various stimuli. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.