Integrating plant lipid metabolism with signaling networks and stress adaptation

Lipids are fundamental biomolecules that function not only as structural components of cellular membranes and as major energy reserves, but also as dynamic signaling entities that coordinate plant responses to environmental challenges. Under abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and nutrient deficiency, plants undergo extensive lipid remodeling to maintain membrane integrity and cellular homeostasis. Diverse lipid classes, including phosphoglycerolipids, sphingolipids, glycoglycerolipids, sterol lipids and oxylipins, generate signaling cues that activate intracellular cascades governing stress adaptation. For instance, a recently discovered stepwise decoding mechanism for heat sensing directly connects membrane lipid remodeling to a nuclear signaling cascade, exemplifying how dynamic lipid changes trigger specific transcriptional outputs. Lipid metabolism also elicits plant immune responses, modulating defense gene expression and programmed cell death during biotic interactions. Notably, a breakthrough in plant immunity revealed that the dual phosphorylation of diacylglycerol kinase 5 (DGK5) triggers a phosphatidic acid (PA) burst, which subsequently regulates reactive oxygen species (ROS) production to execute defense responses. Here, we summarize recent advances illustrating how lipid metabolic pathways are integrated into plant signaling networks that underline both abiotic and biotic stress responses. Beyond their canonical structural and storage roles, lipids constitute a sophisticated communication system that enables plants to sense environmental perturbations and orchestrate coordinated physiological and transcriptional responses. Deciphering this lipid-centric regulatory network will be critical for developing strategies to enhance plant resilience under climate change.