Role of Functional Defence Signalling Molecules in Plant–Microbe Interactions

The structural basis of effector protein disease promotion will open new insights of how microbes modulate hosts for their own advantage providing new tools for further research. Structural and functional studies of host resistance genes mediate activation of HR and SAR host defence and provide knowledge that can be used to engineer future crops which will be resistant to a broad range of pathogens. These studies will focus on how effectors are recognized by plant immune system. Research applied on model species demonstrates that the interactions between plant defence and development under abiotic and biotic stresses are mostly mediated by hormone cross-signalling. In this chapter, we discuss briefly the signalling molecules including transcription factors, volatile compounds and their role in plant defence response.