Molecular Mechanism of the interaction of elicitors from Phytophthora with plant cells.

We studied the link between elicitor and sterol carrier properties using a site directed mutagenesis and heterologous expression of cryptogein gene. Sterol binding kinetics was related to the biological effects of mutated proteins. The mutation in tyrosin-87 included in sterol binding altered specific binding to high affinity sites and biological activities. The results strongly suggest that formation of sterol elicitin complex is a requisite step before binding to specific receptor.