Possible involvement of jasmonates in various morphogenic events

Abstract

Jasmonates (jasmonic acid and related compounds) seem to be involved in various morphogenic events of plants, such as tuberization (potato, yam and Jerusalem artichoke), tuberous root formation (sweet potato), bulb formation (onion and garlic), determination of plant structure (soybean) and thigmomorphogenesis (coiling of tendrils of Bryonia dioica). The involvement of jasmonates in tuberization in these plants was inferred from their ability to induce tubers in vitro, and from changes in the levels of endogenous jasmonates during the growth of the plants, which can account for the initiation of tuberization. As to potato tuberization, jasmonic acid (JA) and its methyl ester (JA‐Me) have strong tuber‐inducing activity. These compounds seem to exert their tuber‐inducing effects by elicting the expansion of cells, because JA and JA‐Me are capable of causing the expansion of cells in potato tubers. The JA‐induced expansion of cells is attributable to both an increase in osmotic pressure due to the accumulation of sucrose and changes in cell wall architecture that appear to affect the extensibility of the wall. And, moreover, the synthesis of cellulose might be indispensable for the JA‐induced expansion. The tuberization and the expansion of cells induced by JA always involve the reorientation of cortical microtubules (MTs), suggesting that JA controls the direction of cell expansion by changing the arrangement of MTs. However, the reorientation of MTs itself seems to be insufficient for the induction of expansion of cells.Involvement of jasmonates in bulb formation and tuberous root formation is presumed from the fact that JA is able to induce these in vitro. The exact nature of the control that the jasmonates exert on morphogenesis remains to be elucidated.