Molecular Interactions of Pectobacterium and Dickeya with Plants

Upon infection, soft rot Pectobacteriaceae (SRP) undergo intense cross-talk with host plants that govern the responses of both partners at different stages of the interaction. In this chapter, we review the molecular bases of these plant-SRP interactions. We focus on the virulence factors deployed by SRP that are important both in plant colonization and in symptom expression, on the highly sophisticated regulatory networks that control the production of these factors and on how these bacteria adapt to the environmental conditions encountered in planta. On the plant side, we present the putative signals that trigger plant defences and their recognition after SRP infection, as well as the plant cell wall modifications that are observed after infection. We review the involvement of diverse plant hormones (SA, JA, ethylene, ABA, auxin) in plant responses to SRP infection, examine the involvement of long term resistance, systemic induced resistance and priming of defence in resistance to SRP, and discuss the efficiency of the diverse defence responses to SRP infection.