Isoprene enhances leaf cytokinin metabolism and induces early senescence

Isoprene, a major biogenic volatile hydrocarbon of climate‐relevance, indisputably mitigates abiotic stresses in emitting plants. However functional relevance of constitutive isoprene emission in unstressed plants remains contested. Isoprene and cytokinins (CKs) are synthesized from a common substrate and pathway in chloroplasts. It was postulated that isoprene emission may affect CK‐metabolism. Using transgenic isoprene‐emitting (IE) Arabidopsis and isoprene nonemitting (NE) RNA‐interference grey poplars (paired with respective NE and IE genotypes), the life of individual IE and NE leaves from emergence to abscission was followed under stress‐free conditions. We monitored plant growth rate, aboveground developmental phenotype, modelled leaf photosynthetic energy status, quantified the abundance of leaf CKs, analysed Arabidopsis and poplar leaf transcriptomes by RNA‐sequencing in presence and absence of isoprene during leaf senescence. Isoprene emission by unstressed leaves enhanced the abundance of CKs (isopentenyl adenine and its precursor) by > 200%, significantly upregulated genes coding for CK‐synthesis, CK‐signalling and CK‐degradation, hastened plant development, increased chloroplast metabolic rate, altered photosynthetic energy status, induced early leaf senescence in both Arabidopsis and poplar. IE leaves senesced sooner even in decapitated poplars where source–sink relationships and hormone homeostasis were perturbed. Constitutive isoprene emission significantly accelerates CK‐led leaf and organismal development and induces early senescence independent of growth constraints. Isoprene emission provides an early‐riser evolutionary advantage and shortens lifecycle duration to assist rapid diversification in unstressed emitters.