Defense Mechanisms of Rosaceous Plants against Fire Blight Pathogen Erwinia amylovora

Abstract

Plants are host to an important amount of infectious diseases caused by a vast array of fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes. In great contrast to the mammalian immune system composed of specialized and mobile defense cells such as lymphocytes, plants have to rely on the ability of each cell to recognize a pathogen and the signals emanating from the infection site to generate several defense mechanisms, either in a preformed or an inducible way. Inducible defense responses are triggered when specific elicitor molecules of the pathogen are recognized by plant cell receptors, which will finally result in a wide range of defense responses provoked by the host in order to prevent further spread of the pathogen. The aim of this study was to highlight the diversity of defense mechanisms in rosaceous plants against the fire blight pathogen Erwinia amylovora.