Fungal elicitors of the phytoalexin response in higher plants

Several types of fungal molecules including cell wall polysaccharides, polypeptides, glycoproteins and lipid molecules have been found to serve as elicitors of phytoalexins in higher plants. Recent work has shown that an extracellular enzyme, endopolygalacturonase, from culture filtrates of the fungusRhizopus stolonifer elicits the biosynthesis of an antifungal antibiotic, casbene, in extracts of treated castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) seedlings. A suggested mode of action of this elicitor in the plant in which fragments of the plant cell wall released through the catalytic action of the enzyme serve as secondary elicitors to trigger the plant response is proposed on the basis of preliminary observations. Possible modes of interaction of other types of fungal elicitors with plants are also discussed.