Induced distal defence potentiation against Phytophthora sojae in soybean

Soybean phenylpropanoid defence responses to the wall glucan elicitor (WGE) fromPhytophthora sojae include the accumulation of phenolic polymers and glyceollin in cells immediately proximal to the point of treatment and the accumulation of conjugates of the isoflavones, daidzein and genistein, in distal cells. Since daidzein is a glyceollin precursor and genistein is both toxic to P. sojae and implicated in local potentiation of competency for the glyceollin response, it has been hypothesized that the distal cell response might raise the defence potential of cells distant from the infection court. In this paper, it is demonstrated that the WGE is indeed highly effective in protecting cells distal to the point of treatment from infection by P. sojae. Mycolaminaran, jasmonic acid (JA), methyl jasmonate and the ethylene precursor, 1-amino-cyclopropane carboxylic acid (ACC), are also effective, while salicylic acid (SA) is not. Methyl jasmonate, WGE and mycolaminaran are most effective, resulting in nearly complete protection against the pathogen even in the universally susceptible line, Williams. Dose response data revealed two distinct types of protection shared by all treatments. The first contains the pathogen to the point of inoculation, while the second is lesion limiting. Lesion limiting protection correlates very well with pre-infectional levels of genistein conjugates and accumulation of a specific peroxidase isozyme, P 2-4, and with post-infectional accumulation of glyceollin, suggesting that this type of protection may be the result of a distal potentiation of glyceollin elicitation competency. The mechanism underlying local containment protection is unknown, but it does not correlate well with any of the established phenylpropanoid responses.