Systemic defense signaling in tomato

The wound-inducible expression of proteinase inhibitors (PIs) genes in tomato provides a powerful model system to elucidate the signal transduction pathway of systemic defense response. An increasing body of evidence indicates that systemin and jasmonic acid (JA) work in the same signaling pathway to activate the expression of PIs and other defense-related genes. However, little is known about how systemin and JA interact to regulate cell to cell communication over long distances. Genetic analysis of the systemin/JA signaling pathway in tomato plants provides a unique opportunity to dissect the mechanism by which peptide and oxylipin signals interact to coordinate systemic expression of defense-related genes. Previously, it has been proposed that systemin is the long-distance mobile signal for systemic expression of defense related genes. However, recent genetic approach provided new evidence that jasmonic acid, rather than systemin, functions as the systemic wound signal, and that the peptide systemin works to regulate the biosynthesis of JA.