Sessile organisms face unique challenges in acquiring and allocating resources to various cellular processes. In plants, competition for limited resources such as light and nutrients drives transcriptional programs that maximize growth. Conversely, herbivores and pathogens activate the expression of defense-related genes at the expense of plant growth. Research in the Howe lab seeks to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which the lipid-derived hormone jasmonate controls transcriptional programs that modulate growth-defense balance. This line of investigation may inform biotechnological strategies to engineer plants that maintain stress resilience in the absence of growth and yield penalties.