The gene-for-gene concept and beyond: Interactions and signals

The gene-for-gene concept is central to most efforts to bioengineer plants for disease resistance. Tn the more than 50 years since Flor first proposed the gene-for-gene concept, it has served as an important focus for researc h an plant disease resistance. This presentation looks briefly at the "evol ution" of our understanding of gene-for-gene resistance in relation to the prospects for bioengineering. The Cladosporium fulvum-tomato interaction is used to illustrate how understanding the signal transduction pathway follo wing interactions between the pathogen elicitor and a putative receptor may lead to new approaches to bioengineering disease resistant cultivars. Tn t his context, recent data are reviewed, confirming that the oxidative burst seen in the defense response of tomato to C.fulvum has strong similarity to that of mammalian phagocytic neutrophil cells.