Plants, being immobile, rely on complex metabolic cascades and hormonal signaling networks to manage their growth (ontogeny) and adapt to environmental stresses. These networks involve a range of phytochemicals as specialized metabolites and phytohormones such as auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, ethylene, abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonates, salicylic acid, strigolactones, phenolics, flavanoids, terpenoids and alkaloids. These molecules/metabolites interact through extensive crosstalk, which is vital for plant survival and adaptation.

The process of signal transduction in plants commences with hormone perception by specific receptors like TIR1/AFB for auxins or PYR/PYL/RCAR for ABA, which trigger secondary signaling molecules including cAMP, Ca2+, and ROS. These messengers then activate downstream components such as protein kinases and phosphatases, culminating in the regulation of transcription factors that control gene expression relevant to production of specialized metabolites to overcome stress and maintain developmental responses.

This Research Topic aims to deepen our understanding of how hormonal signaling and metabo-molecular interactions shape plant ontogeny and responses to environmental stresses, examining both conserved and unique aspects across different species. It seeks to explore the complexities of these pathways, focusing particularly on the spatial and temporal variations of specialized metabolism and hormone signaling at the cellular level and their roles in plant development and stress resilience.

To gather further insights into these complex mechanisms, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

- Hormonal signaling and metabolic crosstalk, including multi-omics studies and mathematical modeling approaches
- Studies elucidating the spatiotemporal dynamics of hormones, utilizing fluorescent reporters and synthetic biosensors to visualize specialized metabolites and hormone distribution and signaling events in real-time. This includes the implementation of RNA sequencing and other single-cell technologies to study signaling at the cellular level
- Redundancy and specificity studies on hormones and other specialized metabolites, using gene-editing technologies and mutant screening to better understand the roles of individual hormones and signaling components
- Environmental variability studies and their impact on hormone and specialized metabolite related crosstalk and signal transduction, involving automated high-throughput phenotyping and complementing controlled studies with field research
- Synthetic biology approaches to engineer pathways for improved stress resilience and ontogeny

This Research Topic will include original research articles, reviews, and methodological advancements.

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Frontiers in Plant Physiology

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