Development of a method to evaluate the elicitation of plant defense mechanisms (ELICITEST)

Coordination: Alia Dellagi

Industrial partner: Staphyt

On average, 30% of yield loss are caused by pathogens on crops. As part of the integrated protection methods, Elicitors take more and more importance. The use of Elicitors is based on the activation of different  plant defense pathways and thus limit the infection by pathogens. The use of  "conventional" pesticides can be reduced. In some cases the Elicitors do not directly activate the defences, but create an alert status of the plant, allowing it to respond more quickly as a result of a biotic stress. This phenomenon is called priming. Their effectiveness is erratic and remains difficult to master as few or no tools are available to assess their ability to activate the mechanisms of plant defenses. The identification of effective Elicitors therefore requires reliable and efficient, screening tools.

The goal of this project is to develop a method of simple evaluation of the activation of plant defenses. A "marker" protein, involved in the main pathways of systemic defence of plants (SAR and ISR) has been identified.

We chose this protein as a marker of immunity to create a 'universal' activation of the systemic defenses detection kit. We identified some peptide sequences stored at this protein through several cultivated plant species. Our project is to develop an immunological test based on antibodies capable of recognizing these peptides maintained in several species. This means that the same kit will detect activation of defenses in several plant species.