Hormonal Regulation of Plant Growth and Defense

The interaction among the various plant hormone signaling pathways is known as hormonal crosstalk. Hormonal crosstalk is presumed to confer advantages to plants, allowing the regulation of different hormone-regulated physiological processes, and the fine-tuning of developmental programs and responses to abiotic and biotic stresses in constantly changing environments. In my lab, we employ genetics, transcriptomics and high-throughput hormone quantification to study and understand hormonal crosstalk in plants. In this talk, I will focus on the plant hormone cytokinin, and its role in plant growth and defense against pathogens. We have shown that cytokinins can prime defense responses and that this plant hormone is needed for the priming action of other priming agents. We are now delving deeper on the molecular mechanisms by which cytokinins mediate these processes, addressing questions at the epigenetic, transcriptional and metabolic levels. Further, our findings show that manipulation of cytokinin crosstalk with other plant hormones changes how plants grow and resist to disease. Such hormonal interactions may form the basis of future efforts in synthetic biology for the development of advanced crops, with increased pathogen resistance and superior plant yield.