Plant chitinases and their role in plant defense: A comprehensive review

Chitinases are present in diverse form of organisms from bacteria, fungi, insects, plants. Plant chitinases are part of pathogenesis-related proteins. When plant (host) cells are under pathogen stress, plant chitinases are strongly expressed and hence plant chitinases play a critical part against fungal pathogens. Chitinases are also found to be involved in various abiotic stress responses like wounding, osmotic pressure, cold, heavy metal stress, salt in plants. Understanding of the plant chitinases will provide an insight for improving the pathogenic activity of various potential biocontrol strains and to develop novel pathogen resistant strategies for exploring their roles with regards to plant defense. The present review covers the detailed account of potential and relevance of plant chitinases for controlling pathogens infection in plant and prospecting to improve plant defense, growth and yield.