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Biol Lett

Title:		Parents lend a helping hand to their offspring in plant defence
Author(s):		Walters DR; Paterson L;
Address:		"Crop and Soil Systems Research Group, Scottish Agricultural College, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK. dale.walters@sac.ac.uk"
Journal Title:		Biol Lett
Year:		2012
Volume:		20120613
Issue:		5
Page Number:		871 - 873
DOI:		10.1098/rsbl.2012.0416
ISSN/ISBN:		1744-957X (Electronic) 1744-9561 (Print) 1744-9561 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Plants under attack by pathogens and pests can mount a range of inducible defences, encompassing both chemical and structural changes. Although few reports exist, it appears that plants responding to pathogen or herbivore attack, or chemical defence elicitors, may produce progeny that are better able to defend themselves against attack, compared with progeny from unthreatened or untreated plants. To date, all research on transgenerational effects of biotic stress has been conducted on dicotyledenous plants. We examined the possibility that resistance induced by application of chemical defence elicitors to the monocot plant barley, could be passed on to the progeny. Plants were treated with acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) or saccharin, and grain harvested at maturity. Germination was unaffected in seed collected from plants treated with saccharin, while germination was reduced significantly in seed collected from ASM-treated plants. The subsequent growth of the seedlings was not significantly different in any of the treatments. However, plants from parents treated with both ASM or saccharin exhibited significantly enhanced resistance to infection by Rhynchosporium commune, despite not being treated with elicitor themselves. These data hint at the possibility of producing disease-resistant plants by exposing parent plants to chemical elicitors"
Keywords:		"Ascomycota/metabolism Gene Expression Regulation, Plant Germination Hordeum/microbiology/physiology Mycoses/microbiology Plant Diseases/*immunology *Plant Physiological Phenomena Saccharin/pharmacology Seedlings Seeds Stress, Physiological Thiadiazoles/ph;"
Notes:		"MedlineWalters, Dale R Paterson, Linda eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2012/06/15 Biol Lett. 2012 Oct 23; 8(5):871-3. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0416. Epub 2012 Jun 13"