Evolution of ethylene as an abiotic stress hormone in streptophytes

Bram Van de Poel; Jan de Vries

doi:10.1016/j.envexpbot.2023.105456

Evolution of ethylene as an abiotic stress hormone in streptophytes

Environ Exp Bot. 2023 Oct:214:105456. doi: 10.1016/j.envexpbot.2023.105456.

Authors

Bram Van de Poel^{1

2}, Jan de Vries^{3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Molecular Plant Hormone Physiology lab, Division of Crop Biotechnics, Department of Biosystems, University of Leuven, Willem de Croylaan 42, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
² KU Leuven Plant Institute (LPI), University of Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
³ University of Goettingen, Institute for Microbiology and Genetics, Department of Applied Bioinformatics, Goldschmidtstr. 1, 37077 Goettingen, Germany.
⁴ University of Goettingen, Campus Institute Data Science (CIDAS), Goldschmidstr. 1, 37077 Goettingen, Germany.
⁵ University of Goettingen, Goettingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), Department of Applied Bioinformatics, Goldschmidtstr. 1, 37077 Goettingen, Germany.

Abstract

All land plants modulate their growth and physiology through intricate signaling cascades. The majority of these are at least modulated-and often triggered-by phytohormones. Over the past decade, it has become apparent that some phytohormones have an evolutionary origin that runs deeper than plant terrestrialization-many emerged in the streptophyte algal progenitors of land plants. Ethylene is such a case. Here we synthesize the current knowledge on the evolution of the phytohormone ethylene and speculate about its deeply conserved role in adjusting stress responses of streptophytes for more than half a billion years of evolution.

Keywords: Abiotic stress; Ethylene; Phytohormones; Plant evolution; Plant physiology; Plant terrestrialization; Signaling cascades; Streptophyte algae.

Publication types

Review