Plant Hormones: Role in Alleviating Biotic Stress

Abstract

Plant hormones play a critical role in regulating plant developmental processes. Jasmonic acid, salicylic acid and brassinosteroids have been recently added to the list of plant hormones apart from auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, abscisic acid and volatile hormone ethylene. Besides their regulatory role in plant development, plant hormones, ethylene, Jasmonic acid and salicylic acid play key roles in the plant defense response while as auxins, gibberellins, abscisic acid, cytokinins and brassinosteroids are known to modulate their effects. For an effective response to biotic stresses, the signaling pathways of different hormones are integrated at different levels enabling crosstalk between them. In this chapter, I will analyze how plant hormones signal defense response and interact with each other through crosstalk to regulate plant defense.