An overview of the plant response to pathogen attack: chitosan as a general elicitor of induced resistance in plants.

Plant disease resistance is the ability of a plant to prevent or restrict pathogen growth and multiplication. All plants, whether they are resistant or susceptible, respond to pathogen attack by the induction of coordinate signalling system, which required the accumulation of different gene products. In plant immunity general elicitors, including chitin/chitosan oligomers are able to induce host defence response by binding to specific molecules