摘要
During the century-long history of plant hormone research, the focus in this area has shifted from the original physi- ological experiments to molecular, genetic, biochemical, and, more recently, genomic approaches. During this jour- ney, we have learned about the many effects these natural compounds have on plant growth and development at the morphological and molecular levels. We have also uncov- ered how these molecules are sensed by the plant cell and how they trigger signaling cascades that relay information to the nucleus, ultimately culminating in a transcriptional cas- cade. With this fundamental knowledge at hand, the main efforts in the field have turned towards a more integrative systems approach, in which the function of a hormone is considered in the context of the complex and dynamic net of interactions with other hormones or, more broadly, with other developmental and environmental signals. Initially, due to the complexity of the problem, most crosstalk studies have focused on pairwise interactions between two or few hormones. Special attention has been given to the interac- tions between ethylene and auxin, perhaps in part because of the experimental tractability of some of the processes in which the interaction between these two hormones is most manifested. An excellent review has been recently written describing the many different processes in which these two hormones are known to interact, either synergistically, such as root growth inhibition, or antagonistically, as is the case for lateral root formation （Muday et al., 2012）. Rather than following this process-centered approach, herein we decided to focus on the molecular mechanisms involved in the inter- action between ethylene and auxin. We take a closer look at the best-known transcriptional and posttranscriptional points of interaction, as well as revisit the most recent experimental findings that suggested additional levels of ethylene-auxin crosstalk.
During the century-long history of plant hormone research, the focus in this area has shifted from the original physi- ological experiments to molecular, genetic, biochemical, and, more recently, genomic approaches. During this jour- ney, we have learned about the many effects these natural compounds have on plant growth and development at the morphological and molecular levels. We have also uncov- ered how these molecules are sensed by the plant cell and how they trigger signaling cascades that relay information to the nucleus, ultimately culminating in a transcriptional cas- cade. With this fundamental knowledge at hand, the main efforts in the field have turned towards a more integrative systems approach, in which the function of a hormone is considered in the context of the complex and dynamic net of interactions with other hormones or, more broadly, with other developmental and environmental signals. Initially, due to the complexity of the problem, most crosstalk studies have focused on pairwise interactions between two or few hormones. Special attention has been given to the interac- tions between ethylene and auxin, perhaps in part because of the experimental tractability of some of the processes in which the interaction between these two hormones is most manifested. An excellent review has been recently written describing the many different processes in which these two hormones are known to interact, either synergistically, such as root growth inhibition, or antagonistically, as is the case for lateral root formation （Muday et al., 2012）. Rather than following this process-centered approach, herein we decided to focus on the molecular mechanisms involved in the inter- action between ethylene and auxin. We take a closer look at the best-known transcriptional and posttranscriptional points of interaction, as well as revisit the most recent experimental findings that suggested additional levels of ethylene-auxin crosstalk.
