Drug-like compounds that induce natural plant immune responses in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) can provide protection to crops against agriculturally relevant diseases. Using a high-throughput screening procedure, our lab identified 114 candidate compounds that induce defense reactions in Arabidopsis against the oomycete pathogen Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis (Hpa). We refer to these compounds as synthetic elicitors because they are small, synthetic, drug-like molecules that interact with regulators of plant immunity and activate disease resistance. In addition to their use as molecular probes to dissect plant immune processes, synthetic elicitors may serve as leads for the development of environmentally-friendly alternatives of conventional pesticides. Adverse effects of conventional pesticides on non-target organisms (i.e. humans) are typically a consequence of their mode-of-action, which often depends on direct toxic or biocidal activity against microbial pathogens. Synthetic elicitors, however, act by stimulating natural plant immune responses and could mediate disease protection without being directly toxic to any life form. The presented work expands on our previous Arabidopsis studies and applies them to two crop species subject to pathogen infection. One of the most robust synthetic elicitors from our screen, compound 442 (CMP442), activates defense responses in Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) against the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) and in Vigna unguiculata (cowpea) against the pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. tracheiphilum (Fot). Chemical elicitors that promote broad spectrum disease resistance in crop plants have a more efficient potential application than the use of pesticides that target one type of pathogen. Surprisingly, we found that CMP442, when applied at low doses, can also enhance growth of roots and aerial parts of Arabidopsis and tomato. Our future work aims to design novel chemistry-based strategies to increase crop vigor and biomass, while at the same time boosting plant immunity. This work was funded by USDA-CSREES grant 2008-35301-19264 to TE and IK, NSF- EAGER grant 1313814 to TE and pre-doctoral fellowships to MS and MRS from NSF-IGERT grant 0504249.

Synthetic elicitor, CMP442, increases innate plant resistance to pathogens

248th National Meeting (2014)

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