Jasmonates (JAs) are phytohormones that induce plant defense responses against pathogens and herbivores. However, JAs often cause plant growth inhibition. Thus, JAs have not been practically useful for crop protection to date. In this study, we demonstrate that N-[5-(Trifluoromethyl)pyridin-2-yl]benzenesulfonamide (TPBS) can upregulate JA-inducible defense genes in Nicotiana benthamiana plants without severe growth inhibition. Using a promoter-luciferase-based high-throughput system (HTS) in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings, TPBS was found to be an agonist of methyl jasmonate (MeJA)-dependent responses, although TPBS has no structural similarity to MeJA. MeJA strongly upregulates the expression of many secondary metabolite-related genes involved in five major secondary metabolic pathways: the alkaloid, terpenoid, phenylpropanoid, flavonoid, and anthocyanin pathways. TPBS application significantly upregulated only some of these genes in the roots, mainly those involved in the alkaloid biosynthesis pathways. The biological activity of TPBS was tested according to its ability to increase the accumulation of nicotine, a well-known JA-inducible alkaloid involved in defense responses. TPBS led to accumulation of nicotine as much as MeJA in N. benthamiana leaves. We found that 10 μM TPBS led to nicotine accumulation (9.7-fold) without growth inhibition (104%), indicating that TPBS can uncouple defense responses from growth inhibition. These features make TPBS a strong candidate for use in crop protection, as demonstrated by increased nicotine content in tobacco.

茉莉酸 (JAs) 是植物激素，可诱导植物对病原体和食草动物的防御反应。然而，JAs经常引起植物生长抑制。因此，迄今为止，JA 在作物保护方面还没有实际用途。在这项研究中，我们证明 N-[5-(三氟甲基)吡啶-2-基]苯磺酰胺 (TPBS) 可以上调本氏烟草植物中 JA 诱导的防御基因，而不会严重抑制生长。在拟南芥中使用基于启动子荧光素酶的高通量系统 (HTS)尽管 TPBS 与 MeJA 没有结构相似性，但 TPBS 被发现是茉莉酸甲酯 (MeJA) 依赖性反应的激动剂。MeJA 强烈上调许多次生代谢物相关基因的表达，这些基因涉及五种主要的次生代谢途径：生物碱、萜类、苯丙素、类黄酮和花青素途径。TPBS 应用仅显着上调根中的一些基因，主要是那些参与生物碱生物合成途径的基因。TPBS 的生物活性根据其增加尼古丁积累的能力进行了测试，尼古丁是一种众所周知的参与防御反应的 JA 诱导型生物碱。TPBS 导致本氏烟中尼古丁的积累与 MeJA 一样多树叶。我们发现 10 μM TPBS 导致尼古丁积累（9.7 倍）而没有生长抑制（104%），这表明 TPBS 可以将防御反应与生长抑制分离。这些特性使 TPBS 成为用于作物保护的有力候选者，烟草中尼古丁含量的增加证明了这一点。