Ethylene response factors in jasmonate signaling and defense response.

Plants are continually exposed to potential pathogens and herbivores and have evolved defenses to counter such opportunistic invasions, including both physical (i.e. waxy cuticles, cell walls) and biochemical (i.e. defense compounds) barriers (for review, see Grennan, 2006). A key component to mounting an effective response, which may involve a change in gene expression, is an efficient signaling pathway. The identification and characterization of some members of the jasmonate and ethylene (ETH) signaling pathways is the focus of this month’s High Impact and the topic of an article by McGrath et al. (2005), ‘‘Repressorand activator-type ethylene response factors functioning in jasmonate signaling and disease resistance identified via a genome-wide screen of Arabidopsis transcription factor gene expression,’’ which as of February 2008 had received 38 citations (Thompson Scientific).