Auxin Plays Multiple Roles during Plant-Pathogen Interactions

The plant hormone auxin governs many aspects of normal plant growth and development. Auxin also plays an important role in plant-microbe interactions, including interactions between plant hosts and pathogenic microorganisms that cause disease. It is now well established that indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), the most well-studied form of auxin, promotes disease in many plant-pathogen interactions. Recent studies have shown that IAA can act both as a plant hormone that modulates host signaling and physiology to increase host susceptibility and as a microbial signal that directly impacts the pathogen to promote virulence, but large gaps in our understanding remain. In this article, we review recent studies on the roles that auxin plays during plant-pathogen interactions and discuss the virulence mechanisms that many plant pathogens have evolved to manipulate host auxin signaling and promote pathogenesis.