Crosstalk between the two signaling branches provides redundancy and robustness, enabling plants to mount context-dependent responses when one pathway is compromised, thereby enhancing resilience to drought, heat, flooding, and pathogen attack.

This cross-talk allows one pathway to compensate for the other, supporting robust responses to diverse stresses.

Future work aims to identify receptors, downstream second messengers, and feedback controls for each isomer to dissect plant stress signaling and explore bioengineering targets for climate-ready crops.

Scientists reveal that plants utilize two parallel cAMP signaling isomers, 3′,5′-cAMP and 2′,3′-cAMP, to regulate normal cellular processes and stress responses in Arabidopsis thaliana.

In plants, the 2′,3′-cAMP isomer accumulates at levels over sixfold higher than 3′,5′-cAMP and is linked to broader stress responses and specialized metabolic pathways, while 3′,5′-cAMP mainly fine-tunes growth, nutrient status, and routine cellular functions.

Funding for the research comes from the European Research Council, Austrian Science Fund, Taif University, and the Max Planck Society.

The study, conducted by ISTA researchers Mingyue Li and Jiří Friml with international collaborators, used Arabidopsis thaliana and was published in Science Advances on May 8, 2026.

An international collaboration spanning ISTA and partners in Germany, Saudi Arabia, the Czech Republic, and the United States underscores global cooperation in advancing plant biology and crop resilience.

The researchers employed Arabidopsis thaliana, quantitative mass spectrometry, gene expression analysis, and mutant phenotyping to map downstream effects and reveal distinct yet overlapping transcriptional landscapes modulated by each cAMP isomer.

The findings point to potential agricultural applications, including engineering crops with improved productivity and resilience under climate stress by targeting parallel cAMP signaling routes.

Publication details: Biogenesis and downstream effects of 3′,5′ and 2′,3′ cAMP isomers in plants, Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aea7828.

The two cAMP forms have largely distinct functions with partial overlap, indicating complementary signaling routes that plants evolved to cope with environmental challenges.