Plants developed sophisticated mechanisms to perceive environmental stimuli and generate appropriate signals to maintain optimal growth and stress responses. A fascinating strategy employed by plants is the use of long-distance mobile signals which can trigger local and distant responses across the entire plant. Some metabolites play a central role as long-distance mobile signals allowing plants to communicate across tissues and mount robust stress responses. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge regarding the various long-distance mobile metabolites and their functions in stress response and signaling pathways. We also raise questions with respect to how we can identify new mobile metabolites and engineer them to improve plant health and resilience.
Keywords: 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid; N-hydroxy-pipecolic acid; azelaic acid; glucosinolates; long-distance signaling; metabolites; mobile metabolites; nicotine; stress response.
© 2023 The Authors. The Plant Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.