Research Article Induced Resistance in Solanum lycopersicum by Algal Elicitor Extracted from Sargassum fusiforme

Copyright © 2015 Layth Sbaihat et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) production relies heavily on the use of chemical pesticides, which is undesired by health-and environment-concerned consumers. Environment-friendly methods of controlling tomato diseases include agroecological practices, organic fungicides, and biological control. Plants ’ resistance against pathogens is induced by applying agents called elicitors to the plants andwould lead to disease prevention or reduced severity.We investigated the ability of a novel elicitor extracted from the brown sea algae (Sargassum fusiforme) to elicit induced resistance in tomato. The studied elicitor induced hypersensitive cell death and O 2 − production in tomato tissues. It significantly reduced severities of late blight, grey mold, and powdery mildew of tomato. Taken together, our novel elicitor has not shown any direct antifungal activity against the studied pathogens, concluding that it is an elicitor of induced resistance. 1