Synthetic Elicitors

(2) Synthetic plant defense elicitors:

Synthetic elicitors are synthetic drug-like compounds that trigger plant immune responses. Besides their use as molecular probes to dissect plant immune processes, they may serve as leads for the development of new types of pesticide alternatives. Previously we screened 60,000 diverse compounds for inducers of the salicylic acid-responsive reporter gene CaBP22^-333:GUS in transgenic Arabidopsis and identified 114 candidate molecules, of which we characterized several representatives of structurally distinct groups. Some of these compounds can mediate highly efficient protection of Arabidopsis thaliana against foliar pathogens such as Pseudomonas syringae bacteria and the oomycete Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis. We also found these componds to mediate some protection against diseases in crop systems like tomato and cowpea.

This project has been supported by the following grants from federal US agencies:

- NSF-EAGER_006038-002,

- USDA-CSREES 200835301-19264

It was further supported by the UCR-AES Mission funding program and a grant from the UCR program on Proof of Concept Funding for Technology Commercialization.

We published the following papers and book chapter related to this project:

- Knoth, C., Salus, M.S., Girke, T., Eulgem, T. 2009, “The Synthetic Elicitor 3,5-Dichloroanthranilic Acid Induces NPR1-Dependent and NPR1-IndependentMechanisms of Disease Resistance in Arabidopsis”. Plant Physiology. 150: p.333-347

http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/150/1/333

- Knoth, Colleen; Eulgem, Thomas, 2014, “High-Throughput Screening of Small-Molecule Libraries for Inducers

of Plant Defense Responses” in PLANT CHEMICAL GENOMICS: METHODS AND PROTOCOLS Edited by: Hicks, GR; Robert, S; Book Series: Methods in Molecular Biology Volume: 1056 Pages: 45-49

- Bektas, Yasemin; Eulgem, Thomas, 2015, “Synthetic plant defense elicitors”, FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 5, article 804,

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2014.00804/full

- Melinda Rodriguez-Salus, Yasemin Bektas, Mercedes Schroeder, Colleen Knoth, Trang Vu, Philip Roberts, Isgouhi Kaloshian and Thomas Eulgem, 2016, “The synthetic elicitor BHTC (2-(5-bromo-2-hydroxy-phenyl)-thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid) links plant immunity to hormesis”, Plant Physiology 170, 444–458,

http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/170/1/444

- Yasemin Bektas, Melinda Rodriguez-Salus, Mercedes Schroeder, Adilene Gomez, Isgouhi Kaloshian, Thomas Eulgem, 2016, "The Synthetic Elicitor DPMP (2,4-dichloro-6-{(E)-[(3-methoxyphenyl)imino]methyl}phenol) Triggers Strong Immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana and Tomato”, Scientific Reports 6:29554

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep29554