Review: The plant chemical defense arsenal

This review by Somssich et al., part of a forthcoming Focus Collection on Metabolites, provides an overview of the chemical arsenal of defense compounds in plants. Playfully titled “Guns in Rosettes”, it focuses on the well-characterized model plant Arabidopsis. The article discusses defense metabolites by chemical class, including terpenoids as well as compounds derived from methionine, tryptophan, and phenylalanine. The authors highlight that some of the compounds are made constitutively and some are induced.  Additionally, the authors discuss many of the outstanding questions about how the defense arsenal is coordinated and integrated, such as how plants know when to make or deploy them, and whether they themselves act as signals to coordinate the plant defense responses. It’s a thorough yet accessible and enjoyable read. (Summary by Mary Williams @PlantTeaching.bsky.social) Plant Physiol. 10.1093/plphys/kiaf411