• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.99-101
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• 2005

Host cell death occurs during many, but not all, interactions between plants and the pathogens that infect them. This cell death can be associated with disease resistance or susceptibility, depending on the nature of the pathogen. The most well-known cell death response in plants is the hypersensitive response (HR) associated with a resistance response. HR is commonly regulated by direct or indirect interactions between avirulence proteins from pathogen and resistance proteins from plant and it can be the result of multiple signaling pathways. Ion fluxes and the generation of reactive oxygen species commonly precede cell death, but a direct involvement of the latter seems to vary with the plant-pathogen combination. Exciting advances have been made in the identification of cellular protective components and cell death suppressors that might operate in HR. In this review, recent progress in the mechanisms by which plant programmed cell death (PCD) occurs during disease resistance will be discussed.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.63-67
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• 2002

To understand plant-pathogen interactions, a complete set of hot pepper genes differentially expressed against pathogen attack was isolated. As an initial step, hundreds of differentially expressed cDNAS were isolated from hot pepper leaves showing non-host resistance against bacterial plant pathogens (Xanthomonas campestris pv. glycines and Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae) using differential display reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (DDDRT-PCR) technique. Reverse Northern and Northern blot analyses revealed that 50% of those genes were differentially expressed in pepper loaves during non-host resistance response. Among them, independent genes without redundancy were micro-arrayed for further analysis. Random EST sequence database were also generated from various CDNA libraries including pepper tissue specific libraries and leaves showing non-host hypersensitive response against X. campestris pv. glycines. As a primary stage, thousands of cDNA clones were sequenced and EST data were analyzed. These clones are being spotted on glass slide to study the expression profiling. Results of this study may further broaden knowledge on plant-pathogen interactions.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.321-329
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• 2009

Rapid production of nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been implicated in the regulation of innate immunity in plants. A potato calcium-dependent protein kinase (StCDPK5) activates an NADPH oxidase StRBOHA to D by direct phosphorylation of N-terminal regions, and heterologous expression of StCDPK5 and StRBOHs in Nicotiana benthamiana results in oxidative burst. The transgenic potato plants that carry a constitutively active StCDPK5 driven by a pathogen-inducible promoter of the potato showed high resistance to late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans accompanied by HR-like cell death and $H_2O_2$ accumulation in the attacked cells. In contrast, these plants showed high susceptibility to early blight necrotrophic pathogen Alternaria solani, suggesting that oxidative burst confers high resistance to biotrophic pathogen, but high susceptibility to necrotrophic pathogen. NO and ROS synergistically function in defense responses. Two MAPK cascades, MEK2-SIPK and cytokinesis-related MEK1-NTF6, are involved in the induction of NbRBOHB gene in N. benthamiana. On the other hand, NO burst is regulated by the MEK2-SIPK cascade. Conditional activation of SIPK in potato plants induces oxidative and NO bursts, and confers resistance to both biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens, indicating the plants may have obtained during evolution the signaling pathway which regulates both NO and ROS production to adapt to wide-spectrum pathogens.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.245-268
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• 2008

The outcome of plant-pathogen interactions is influenced significantly by endogenous small molecules that coordinate plant defence responses. There is currently tremendous scientific and commercial interest in identifying chemicals whose exogenous application activates plant defences and affords protection from pathogen infection. In this review, we provide a survey of compounds known to induce disease resistance in plants, with particular emphasis on how each compound was originally identified, its putative or demonstrated mechanism of defence induction, and the known biological target(s) of each chemical. Larger polymeric structures and peptides/proteins are also discussed in this context. The quest for novel defence-inducing molecules would be aided by the capability for high-throughput analysis of candidate compounds, and we describe some issues associated with the development of these types of screens. Subsequent characterization of hits can be a formidable challenge, especially in terms of identifying chemical targets in plant cells. A variety of powerful molecular tools are available for this characterization, not only to provide insight into methods of plant defence activation, but also to probe fundamental biological processes. Furthermore, these investigations can reveal molecules with significant commercial potential as crop protectants, although a number of factors must be considered for this potential to be realized. By highlighting recent progress in the application of chemical biology techniques for the modulation of plant-pathogen interactions, we provide some perspective on the exciting opportunities for future progress in this field of research.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.367-374
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• 2008

The genomes of plants contain more than 600 genes encoding a diverse set of proteases and the subunits of proteasomes. These proteases and proteasomes consist of plant proteolytic systems, which are involved in various cellular metabolic processes. Plant proteolytic systems have been shown to have diverse roles in defense responses, such as execution of the attack on the invading organisms, participation in signaling cascades, and perception of the invaders. In order to provide a framework for illustrating the importance of proteolytic systems in plant defense, characteristics of non-proteasome proteases and the 26S proteasome are summarized. The involvement of caspase-like proteases, saspases, apoplastic proteases, and the 26S proteasome in pathogen defense suggests that plant proteolytic systems are essential for defense and further clarity on the roles of plant proteases in defense is challenging but fundamentally important to understand plant-microbe interactions.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.197-206
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• 2011

RNA silencing has had a large impact on biology in general, as well as on our understanding of plant-pathogen interactions, especially interactions between plants and viruses. While most of what we know about the mechanism of RNA silencing was deduced in the last 12 years, many of the interactions between plants and viruses, as well as virus-virus interactions in plants, which we now know are manifestations of RNA silencing, were the subject of decades of work from numerous laboratories. These laboratories were examining the nature and extent of phenomena such as recovery from infection, the formation of dark green islands resistant to re-infection, synergy between unrelated viruses and cross-protection between related viruses, all first described in the late 1920s. In this review, the relationships between these phenomena and their place in the defense mechanism we call RNA silencing will be described, to show how they are all linked.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.97-107
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• 1990

The epidemiology of plant disease deals with the dynamic processes of host-pathogen interactions, which determine the prevalence and severity of the disease. Epidemic processes for most foliar diseases of plants follow a series of steps: arrival of pathogens on plant surfaces, initial infection, incubation period, latent period, sporulation, dissemination of secondary inoculum, and infectious period. These complex biological processes are influenced by the environment-Man also often interfers with these processes by altering the host and pathogen populations and the environment. Slowing or halting any of the epidemic processes can delay the development of the epidemic, so that serious losses in yield due to disease do not occur. It is generally recognized that the most effective and efficient method of minimizing disease damage is through the use of resistant cultivars, particularly when other methods such as fungicide applications are not economically feasible-Populations of plant pathogens are not genetically uniform nor are they necessarily stable. Cultivars bred for resistance to current populations of a pathogen may not be resistant in the future due to selection pressures placed on the pathogen populations. Understanding population development and genetic variability in the pathogen, and knowledge of the genetics of resistance in the plant should help in developing breeding strategies that wi1l provide effective and stable disease control through genetic resistance. In the United States, soybeans have ranked first in value of crops sold off the farm in recent years. Soybeans have been the leading U. S.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.244-254
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• 2009

The hypersensitive reaction (HR) is the most common plant defense reaction against pathogens. HR is produced during both host- and nonhost-incompatible interactions. Several reports suggest that similarities exist between host and nonhost resistances. We assayed the pattern of generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and scavenging enzyme activities during nonhost pathogen-plant interactions (Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris/Capsicum annuum L.) and incompatible host pathogen-plant interactions (Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria race1/Capsicum annuum L.). Both ${O_2}^-\;and\;H_2O_2 $ accumulated much faster during nonhost resistance when compared to the host resistance. The scavenging enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POX) were also different during the host- and nonhost-incompatible interactions. CAT activity was much higher during nonhost resistance, and several new isozymes of SOD and POX were detected during nonhost resistance when compared to the host resistance. Lipoxygenase (LOX) activity was higher in host resistance than nonhost resistance during the early stages of infection. Interestingly, the nitric oxide (NO) radical accumulated equal amounts during both host and nonhost resistance at early stages of infection. Further studies are needed to determine the specific pathways underlying these differences between host and nonhost resistance responses.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 1999

Hypersensitive cell death of plants during incompatible plant-pathogen interactions is one of the efficient defense mechanisms of plants against pathogen infections. For better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the plant hypersensitive response (HR), TMV-induced biotic plant cell death and CuSO4-induced abiotic plant cell death were compared in terms of expression patterns of ten different defense-related genes as molecular markers. The genes include five pathogenesis-related protein genes, two plant secondary metabolite-associated genes, two oxidative stress-related genes and one wound-inducible gene isolated from tobacco. Northern blot analyses revealed that a same set of defense-related genes was induced during both biotic and abiotic cell death but with different time and magnitude. The expression of defense-related genes in tobacco plants was temporarily coincided with the time of cell death. However, when suspension cell cultures was used to monitor the expression of defense-related genes, different patterns of the gene expression were detected. This result implies that three are common and, in addition, also different branches of signaling pathways leading to the induced expression of defense-related genes in tobacco during the pathogen- and heavy metal-induced cell death.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2004

An important recent advance in the field of plant-microbe interactions has been the cloning of genes that confer resistance to specific viruses, bacteria, fungi or insects. Disease resistance (R) genes encode proteins with predicted structural motifs consistent with them having roles in signal recognition and transduction. Plant disease resistance is the result of an innate host defense mechanism, which relies on the ability of plant to recognize pathogen invasion and efficiently mount defense responses. In tomato, resistance to the pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato is mediated by the specific recognition between the tomato serine/threonine kinase Pto and bacterial protein AvrPto or AvrPtoB. This recognition event initiates signaling events that lead to defense responses including an oxidative burst, the hypersensitive response (HR), and expression of pathogenesis- related genes.