Research on the molecular mechanisms and applications of plant immune priming

Plants that live a life fixed to the ground cannot escape from various pathogens and must deal with them. To effectively defend against pathogen infection, plants have various resistance mechanisms, which are in a trade-off relationship with growth. In addition to these disease resistance mechanisms, plants have a system called priming that enhances resistance mechanisms but does not affect growth. Analysis of immune priming induced by mycorrhizal symbiosis in tomato revealed that priming is effective against multiple defense signals mediated by salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid signals and against both pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria. In Arabidopsis, strigolactone signaling-induced priming was shown to enhance ethylene signaling and camalexin synthesis in addition to SA signaling. These findings are expected to lead to more effective use of priming to protect plants in the future.