ArticleBMC plant biology2025
Raffinose induces autophagy to promote the growth of Arabidopsis Thaliana.
Article in BMC plant biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Insights into Selenium-Modulated Amino Acids and Carbohydrates as Osmolytes Linked to Photosynthetic Efficiency in Drought-Stressed Edamame.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Autophagy in plants: molecular mechanisms and roles in abiotic stress responses.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Review
- Can autophagy enhance crop resilience to environmental stress?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPlant growth depends on the integration of environmental signals and nutrient availability. Under stress conditions, growth is often attenuated to prioritise defense, creating a trade-off between growth and stress responses. Autophagy, a conserved degradation and recycling mechanism in eukaryotes, plays a central role in maintaining cellular homeostasis during stress. Enhancing autophagy has been shown to improve growth, yield, and stress tolerance in plants, yet the molecular triggers that initiate this process are not fully understood.
resultsWe identified raffinose, a plant-derived sugar associated with stress responses, as a novel inducer of autophagy in plants. Exogenous application of raffinose stimulated autophagic activity and promoted biomass accumulation and seed yield in an autophagy-dependent manner across multiple plant species. Mechanistic analysis revealed that raffinose activates autophagy through SnRK1 in a TOR-independent manner, and that it upregulates the expression of autophagy-related genes ATG5 and ATG7. The growth-promoting effect of raffinose was specific and not replicated by equivalent carbon supplementation with glucose, while the raffinose precursor galactinol showed similar autophagy-dependent growth enhancement. Finally, we pointed to possible downstream candidates operating autophagy-related biomass accumulation, as identified by metabolic profiling.
conclusionsOur findings position raffinose as a signalling molecule capable of activating autophagy and enhancing plant growth and yield in a targeted, species-conserved manner. By linking a stress-associated sugar to the activation of a central catabolic pathway, this work reveals a potential mechanism by which plants may optimise the balance between growth and defense. Understanding raffinose-mediated autophagy induction can potentially provide new opportunities for developing strategies to improve crop performance under variable environmental conditions.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.