Elicitation of Plant Hypersensitive Response by Bacteria

There appears to be two types of plant cell death associated with pathogen infections: a rapid death localized at the site of infection during an incompatible interaction between a resistant plant and an avirulent pathogen, and a slow normosensitive plant cell death that spreads beyond the site of infection during compatible interactions involving a susceptible plant and a virulent, necrogenic pathogen. Both can lead to a systemic, broad-spectrum resistance response called SAR, which is effective against subsequent infection by the same or different pathogens. This report describes how bacteria elicit hypersensitive cell death. 40 refs., 2 figs.