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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDNew Crops

How does salicylic acid activate plant immunity?

  • Yaling Cai1
  • Yi Ouyang2
  • Xia Zhang3,1
  • Yadong Chen1
  • Junli Zhang1
  • Congying Bi1
  • Ziye Liu1
  • Xiaowei Han4
  • Xuebin Zhang3,1
  • Wei Wang1
  • Ke Yu1
4 affiliations
  1. 1State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement & Henan Joint International Laboratory for Crop Multi-Omics Research, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
  2. 2Key Laboratory of Plant Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China
  3. 3Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
  4. 4National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Hubei Key Laboratory of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
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Abstract

Salicylic acid (SA) is a phytohormone central to plant immune responses, orchestrating both local defense and systemic acquired resistance (SAR), a broad-spectrum and long-lasting immune state. Upon pathogen attack, SA accumulates not only at the infection site but also in distal, uninfected tissues, priming the whole plant for enhanced resistance. Over the past three decades, extensive research, particularly in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana , has firmly established SA as a key regulator of plant immunity, yet several fundamental questions have only recently begun to be resolved. This review synthesizes recent advances in our understanding of SA biosynthesis and the mechanisms underlying its perception and signaling in plants. We summarize the now well-defined enzymatic routes of SA biosynthesis and emerging structural insights into SA recognition and downstream signaling. In addition, we highlight recent breakthroughs in identifying mobile immune signals that trigger SAR. By integrating findings from both model and non-model species, we outline conserved mechanisms, highlight emerging lineage-specific features in SA-activated plant immunity, and emphasize key open questions that remain to be addressed.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{cai2026does,
  title = {{How does salicylic acid activate plant immunity?}},
  author = {Yaling Cai and Yi Ouyang and Xia Zhang and Yadong Chen and Junli Zhang and Congying Bi and Ziye Liu and Xiaowei Han and Xuebin Zhang and Wei Wang and Ke Yu},
  journal = {New Crops},
  year = {2026},
  month = may,
  doi = {10.1016/j.ncrops.2026.100112},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ncrops.2026.100112},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - How does salicylic acid activate plant immunity?
AU  - Yaling Cai
AU  - Yi Ouyang
AU  - Xia Zhang
AU  - Yadong Chen
AU  - Junli Zhang
AU  - Congying Bi
AU  - Ziye Liu
AU  - Xiaowei Han
AU  - Xuebin Zhang
AU  - Wei Wang
AU  - Ke Yu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/26
JO  - New Crops
DO  - 10.1016/j.ncrops.2026.100112
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ncrops.2026.100112
AB  - Salicylic acid (SA) is a phytohormone central to plant immune responses, orchestrating both local defense and systemic acquired resistance (SAR), a broad-spectrum and long-lasting immune state. Upon pathogen attack, SA accumulates not only at the infection site but also in distal, uninfected tissues, priming the whole plant for enhanced resistance. Over the past three decades, extensive research, particularly in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana , has firmly established SA as a key regulator of plant immunity, yet several fundamental questions have only recently begun to be resolved. This review synthesizes recent advances in our understanding of SA biosynthesis and the mechanisms underlying its perception and signaling in plants. We summarize the now well-defined enzymatic routes of SA biosynthesis and emerging structural insights into SA recognition and downstream signaling. In addition, we highlight recent breakthroughs in identifying mobile immune signals that trigger SAR. By integrating findings from both model and non-model species, we outline conserved mechanisms, highlight emerging lineage-specific features in SA-activated plant immunity, and emphasize key open questions that remain to be addressed.
SN  - 2949-9526
ER  -