The molecule cAMP, which plays essential roles in mammalian cells, is less well understood in plants. In a new Science Advances paper, researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and international collaborators demonstrate that plants use two forms of cAMP in parallel to regulate normal cellular processes and respond to stress, while maintaining crosstalk between them. That crosstalk provides redundancy, so that if one fails, the other can compensate, allowing plants to respond more robustly to a wider range of environmental factors. Ultimately, the findings could help improve crop resilience and productivity in a rapidly changing climate.