Ralstonia solanacearum extracellular polysaccharide is a specific elicitor of defense responses in wilt-resistant tomato plants.

ABSTRACT: Ralstonia solanacearum, which causes bacterial wilt of diverse plants, produces copious extracellular polysaccharide (EPS), a major virulence factor. The function of EPS in wilt disease is uncertain. Leading hypotheses are that EPS physically obstructs plant water transport, or that EPS cloaks the bacterium from host plant recognition and subsequent defense. Tomato plants infected with R. solanacearum race 3 biovar 2 strain UW551 and tropical strain GMI1000 upregulated genes in both the ethylene (ET) and salicylic acid (SA) defense signal transduction pathways. The horizontally wilt-resistant tomato line Hawaii7996 activated expression of these defense genes faster and to a greater degree in response to R. solanacearum infection than did susceptible cultivar Bonny Best. However, EPS played

SUBMITTER: Milling A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3017055 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature