ARS | Publication request: INDUCED DISEASE RESISTANCE IN PLANTS

Submitted to: Advances in Plant Disease Management
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: June 19, 2003
Publication Date: December 17, 2003
Citation: Huang, J.S., Hsu, H.T. 2003. Induced Disease Resistance in Plants in Advances in Plant Disease Management (eds). Huang, H.C., Acharya, S.N. pp. 237-258. Res. Signpost, Kerala, India.

Interpretive Summary: Worldwide crop losses due to damage caused by microbial infection can be enormous. There is no single crop exempt from losses due to plant diseases. Damage includes severe reduction in both production and/or quality of crops food, fiber's, and horticultural. Although plants are exposed to many potential pathogens, there exist two forms of resistance mechanisms that plants use to defend against microbial attack. One is preformed resistance which is dependent on characteristics of normal plants. These characteristics include thickness of cuticles, size of stomata, numbers of trichomes, epicuticular wax content, cell wall composition and structure, and the presence of constitutive antimicrobial compounds. The other defense mechanism is induced resistance which is elicited by microbial invasion or chemical treatments resulting in hypersensitive reaction (HR), systemic acquired resistance (SAR) or induced systemic resistance (ISR). We document here the genetic basis of disease resistance, the biochemical mechanisms that confer induced resistance, the signal transduction pathways that lead to HR, SAR and ISR, and finally the prospect of plant disease management by induced resistance. The content is intended for use by audiences with knowledge of basic plant pathology, plant physiology and biochemistry. It is a chapter in the series of Advances in Plant Disease Management.

Technical Abstract: Plants employ multiple types of defenses against microbial invasion. One type of defense is dependent upon the activation of certain defense mechanisms by the invading microbes or abiotic treatment and is termed induced resistance. The objective of this chapter is to review our current understanding of induced resistance, from the basic to the applied. Specifically, we will (1) to describe plant resistance (R) genes and microbial avirulence (avr) genes and their roles in plant-microbe interactions; (2) summarize some of the major biochemical mechanisms involved in induced resistance; (3) illustrate the signal transduction pathways, from gene activation to iochemical action; and (4) present the current status and future prospect of induced disease resistance in plant disease management.