Induces Systemic Jasmonate Responses in Arabidopsis Which Travel to Neighboring Plants via a Hyphal Network and Activate Abscisic Acid Responses.

Stress information received by a particular local plant tissue is transferred to other tissues and neighboring plants, but how the information travels is not well understood. Application of spores to Arabidopsis leaves or roots stimulates local accumulation of jasmonic acid (JA), the expression of JA-responsive genes, as well as of () and (). Infection information is systemically spread over the entire seedling and propagates radially from infected to non-infected leaves, axially from leaves to roots, and . The local and systemic responses are reduced in the mutant, and the response in the mutant. Information about infection travels slowly to uninfected neighboring plants via a hyphal network, where and are up-regulated. The systemic -induced JA response in infected plants is converted to an abscisic acid (ABA) response in the neighboring plant where ABA and ABA-responsive genes are induced. We propose that the local threat information induced by infection is spread over the entire plant and transferred to neighboring plants via a hyphal network. The JA-specific response is converted to a general ABA-mediated stress response in the neighboring plant.