Food Hygiene

Rapid Induction of the Synthesis of Phenylalanine Ammonia‐Lyase and of Chalcone Synthase in Elicitor‐Treated Plant Cells

“…The accumulation of phytoalexins in plant cells in response to infection by pathogenic fungi or bacteria is believed to be an important factor in plant disease resistance [l]. Phytoalexins can be induced to accumulate by glycan [2], glycoprotein [3] and lipid [4] molecules present in fungal cell walls and culture filtrates. Labelling studies in vivo have shown that phytoalexin accumulation is largely a result of increased synthesis from remote precursors [5,6] (but see also [7,8]) and increases in the levels of appropriate biosynthetic enzymes are observed during phytoalexin accumulation [9 -161. In cell suspension cultures of dwarf French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) the isoflavonoid-derived phytoalexin phaseollin accumulates in response to elicitor preparations from cell walls of a variety of fungi [12].…”