Plant Defense Response to Abiotic Stress via Abscisic Acid Signaling Pathway

Abstract

Plants are exposed to stresses such as pathogens, drought, high salt and temperature stress, and have evolved and developed diverse and sophisticated defense mechanisms to protect themselves from these stresses. Many hormones are involved in the metabolism of plants and some are known to affect the control of plant defense mechanisms against pathogen infection and environmental stress. In biotic and abiotic stress responses, abscisic acid (ABA) regulates key metabolic pathways. In abiotic stress conditions, plants induce ABA biosynthesis, which activate defense response at the cellular level, such as expression of stress-related genes and stomatal closure. Moreover, the molecular components related to ABA signal transduction have been identified and complex networks of interactions are being analyzed in detail. In this review, I will describe the ABA signal transduction pathway from the ABA receptor to the ion channel and provide basic information on the current understanding of the plant defense response to abiotic stress via the ABA signal transduction pathway.