A Tale of Sugars and Hormones: Perception and Responses

Abstract

The survival of organisms is dependent on the perception of various external and internal cues and modulating growth according to the available conditions. This is achieved through highly coordinated and interconnected signalling pathways which are highly complex in eukaryotic systems. In order to circumvent the sessile nature, plants are evolved to have enhanced plasticity and robust environmental sensing mechanisms. Sugars produced by the plants are perceived by a dedicated set of receptors which leads to the modulation of the specific signalling pathway to ultimately fine-tune plant growth and defence responses according to the sugar and energy availability. Different phytohormone signalling pathways which originated at different facets of plant evolution play a pivotal role in controlling the growth, development and defence strategies. Research in the past two decades uncovered the extent of interaction of sugar and phytohormone signalling pathways in controlling and fine-tuning various plant growth and stress responses. The following chapter concisely summarizes the molecular and physiological interaction of different sugar signalling pathways with hormone signalling pathways which is ultimately important in the regulation of plant development and stress responses.