Chemical Elicitors and Microbial Metabolites: Synergistic Mechanisms in Plant Systemic Resistance Induction
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2025 | Viewed by 52
Special Issue Editor
Interests: plant defense mechanism; fungal plant disease; biological control; antifungal bacteria; elicitor
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In plant–pathogen interactions, elicitors that induce defense responses in plants are released from cell walls of plant pathogens and chemical elicitors. It is known that the SA-dependent induction of defense-related genes such as PR proteins is essential for systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in plants. In addition, induced systemic resistance (ISR) has been defined as a result of the colonization of plant roots by certain strains of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and is mediated by a jasmonate (JA)- and ethylene (ET)-sensitive pathway. Bacillus subtilis, B. amyloliquefaciens, and B. cereus are known to produce cyclic peptides (Iturin) and cyclic lipodepsipeptides (surfactin and fengycin or plipastatin), as well as various physiologically active metabolites. Among them, metabolites including polyketides, bacillaene, dipicidin, oxydipicidin, macrolactin, peptides (plantazolysin), aminopolyols (zvitermycin A and canosamine), iturin, surfactin, fengycin, and plipastatin, as well as biological control agents as plant disease resistance inducers, have attracted attention. The chemical elicitor, β-amino-butyric acid (BABA), which is a non-protein amino acid, induces a plant systemic defense response. Interestingly, it has been found that amino acids such as phenylalanine, tyrosine, and lysine produced by antagonistic microorganisms induce defense responses in plants. Recently, it has been found that lysine produced in large quantities by B. subtilis induces defense gene expression. In the future, if the resistance induction mechanism of microbial metabolites as chemical inducers is elucidated, it is expected that it can be utilized to enhance plant resistance.
Prof. Dr. Heewan Kang
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- chemical elicitors
- Bacillus spp.
- microbial metabolites
- amino acids
- defense induction
- resistance mechanisms
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