The role of ethylene in rhizobacteria-induced systemic resistance (ISR).

Abstract

To protect themselves from disease, plants have evolved sophisticated defense mechanisms in which the signal molecules salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene (ET) often play crucial role (Pieterse and Van Loon, 1999). Elucidation of signaling pathways controlling disease resistance is a major objective in research on plant–pathogen interactions. The capacity of a plant to develop a broad-spectrum, systemic acquired resistance (SAR) after primary infection with a necrotizing pathogen is well known and its signal transduction pathway extensively studied (Durrant and Dong, 2004).