Applied jasmonates accumulate extracellularly in tomato, but intracellularly in barley

Jasmonic acid (JA) and its derivatives are well-characterized signaling molecules in plant defense and development, but the site of their localization within plant tissue is entirely unknown. To address the question whether applied JA accumulates extracellularly or intracellularly, leaves of tomato and barley were fed with 14C-labeled JA and the label was localized in cryofixed and lyophilized leaf tissues by microautoradiography. In tomato the radioactivity was detectable within the apoplast, but no label was found within the mesophyll cells. By contrast, in barley leaf tissues, radioactivity was detected within the mesophyll cells suggesting a cellular uptake of exogenously applied JA. JA, applied to leaves of both plants as in the labeling experiments, led in all leaf cells to the expression of JA-inducible genes indicating that the perception is completed by JA signal transduction.