TY - JOUR AU - Meldau, Stefan AU - Ullman-Zeunert, Lynn AU - Govind, Geetha AU - Bartram, Stefan AU - Baldwin, Ian T. PY - 2012 DA - 2012/11/13 TI - MAPK-dependent JA and SA signalling in Nicotiana attenuataaffects plant growth and fitness during competition with conspecifics JO - BMC Plant Biology SP - 213 VL - 12 IS - 1 AB - Induced defense responses to herbivores are generally believed to have evolved as cost-saving strategies that defer the fitness costs of defense metabolism until these defenses are needed. The fitness costs of jasmonate (JA)-mediated defenses have been well documented. Those of the early signaling units mediating induced resistance to herbivores have yet to be examined. Early signaling components that mediate herbivore-induced defense responses in Nicotiana attenuata, have been well characterized and here we examine their growth and fitness costs during competition with conspecifics. Two mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), salicylic acid (SA)-induced protein kinase (SIPK) and wound-induced protein kinase (WIPK) are rapidly activated after perception of herbivory and both kinases regulate herbivory-induced JA levels and JA-mediated defense metabolite accumulations. Since JA-induced defenses result in resource-based trade-offs that compromise plant productivity, we evaluated if silencing SIPK (irSIPK) and WIPK (irWIPK) benefits the growth and fitness of plants competiting with wild type (WT) plants, as has been shown for plants silenced in JA-signaling by the reduction of Lipoxygenase 3 (LOX3) levels. SN - 1471-2229 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2229-12-213 DO - 10.1186/1471-2229-12-213 ID - Meldau2012 ER -