H2O2 FROM THE OXIDATIVE BURST ORCHESTRATES THE PLANT HYPERSENSITIVE DISEASE RESISTANCE RESPONSE

Microbial elicitors or attempted infection with an avirulent pathogen strain causes the rapid production of reactive oxygen intermediates. W e report here that H2O2 from this oxidative bu rst not only drives the crosslinking of cell wall structural proteins, but also functions as a local trigger of programmed death in challenged cells and as a diffu sible signal for the induction in adjacent cells of genes encoding cel lular protectants such as glutathione S-transferase and glutathione pe roxidase. Thus, H2O2 from the oxidative burst plays a key role in the orchestration of a localized hypersensitive response during the expres sion of plant disease resistance.