ABSTRACT
Introduction Plants have evolved highly specic mechanisms to resist pathogens. One of the common ways to counter pathogen growth involves the deployment of resistant (R) proteins, which confer protection against specic races of pathogens carrying corresponding avirulence (Avr) genes [1]. Following recognition of the pathogen,
one or more signal transduction pathways are induced in the host plant and these lead to the prevention of colonization by the pathogen. Induction of defense responses is often accompanied by localized cell death at the site of pathogen entry. is phenomenon, termed the hypersensitive response (HR), is one of the earliest visible manifestations of induced defense reactions and resembles programmed cell death in animals [1]–[6]. Concurrent with HR development, defense reactions are triggered in both local and distant parts of the plant and accompanied by a local and systemic increase in endogenous salicylic acid (SA) levels and the upregulation of a large set of defense genes, including those encoding pathogenesisrelated (PR) proteins [7]–[9].
