Salicylic Acid-Mediated Abiotic Stress Tolerance
Plants are exposed to many environmental stresses, which are further aggravated by the effects of global climate change. So investigations on compounds capable of reducing the stress sensitivity of plants are of great importance. Salicylic acid is a pheno
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Salicylic Acid-Mediated Abiotic Stress Tolerance M. Pál, G. Szalai, V. Kovács, O. K. Gondor and T. Janda
Abstract Plants are exposed to many environmental stresses, which are further aggravated by the effects of global climate change. So investigations on compounds capable of reducing the stress sensitivity of plants are of great importance. Salicylic acid is a phenolic compound produced to varying extents by a wide range of plant species. Its usefulness in human medicine was recognized much earlier than its role in plants. This endogenous plant growth regulator participates in many physiological and metabolic reactions. It was first demonstrated to play a role in responses to biotic stress. Soon afterwards; however, it became increasingly clear that salicylic acid also plays a role during the plant response to abiotic stresses such as heavy metal toxicity, heat, chilling, drought, UV-light and osmotic stress. Two kinds of evidence have accumulated to support this. First, endogenous salicylic acid levels rise in several species when they are exposed to abiotic stress conditions. Secondly, the application of salicylic acid at suitable concentrations induces stress tolerance in various plant species. The use of mutants and transgenic plants in which the synthesis, accumulation or translocation of salicylic acid is modified could help to clarify its molecular modes of action in physiological processes. Crosstalk with other hormones such as jasmonic acid, ethylene, abscisic acid, gibberellic acid and cytokinin is important part of a finely tuned immune response network. It can be seen that SA exerts an effect at several levels and its effect also depends on several factors, such as the mode of application, the concentration, environmental conditions, plant species and organs, etc. In the present chapter a summary will be given of the relationship between SA and various abiotic stress factors in relation to biotic stress and other plant hormones, followed by a summary of the known physiological and biochemical effects of SA that may explain the change in stress tolerance.
M. Pál G. Szalai V. Kovács O. K. Gondor T. Janda (&) Agricultural Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-2462 Martonvásár, 19 Hungary e-mail: [email protected]
S. Hayat et al. (eds.), Salicylic Acid, DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6428-6_10, Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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Keywords Abiotic stress Signal transduction
M. Pál et al.
Oxidative stress Plant hormones Salicylic acid
1 Introduction Plants containing large quantities of salicylates were used medicinally long before these compounds were identified. Salicylates have been known to have healing properties since the 5th century B.C., when Hippocrates prescribed the chewing of willow leaves and bark to relieve labour pains (Rainsford 1984). The use of plants containing salicylate continued and was widespread not only in the old World but also in the New World, where Native Americans used extracts of willow bark
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