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Natural sciences
- Cell signalling
Jasmonate (JA) is an oxylipin phytohormone that plays a crucial role in the fitness programs that determine plant growth, development, and defense. The core of the canonical JA signaling pathway is well characterized, yet our view on potential molecular interactions with JAs and our understanding of their biological relevance is still limited. The recent adaptation of novel interactomics platforms in the plant could help to elucidate novel biological mechanisms and functions. Limited proteolysis-coupled mass spectrometry (LiP-MS) offers a medium-throughput approach to reveal protein-metabolite interactions (PMIs) and thereby discover novel functions of bioactive metabolites. Indeed, an extensive LiP-MS screen on proteomes from different plant species indicated that JA may not only bind to the hitherto known receptor proteins in its signaling pathway but additionally also to a marked variety of other proteins. These results implicate unexpected biological activities and roles for JAs beyond the canonical signaling pathway. Following extensive mining of the datasets, different proteins related to oxidative stress were selected as potential JA interactors, supporting an unrevealed link between ROS and JA signaling. In this project, the validation and functional analysis of the novel candidate JA-interactors will be carried out. By digging into the physiological relevance of these interactions, novel fundamental knowledge on the role of JA and its bioactivities will be generated.