Increasing durum wheat resistance to Fusarium graminearum by using cell wall-derived oligogalacturonides

Plant diseases cause substantial crop losses worldwide and compromise food safety because of the presence of toxins associated to fungal contamination. Thus, sustainable yield increase, diminishing usage of chemicals, enhancing crop resilience to biotic stress represent the main, concomitant, targets to be pursued in agriculture in the shortest period. Among the current approaches to crop protection, the use of elicitors, able to activate the natural defense mechanisms of the plant, is a strategy gaining increasing attention. Numerous studies indicate that local application of plant cell wall (CW)-derived elicitors, such as oligogalacturonides (OGs) derived from partial degradation of pectin, induce systemic resistance against pathogens in different plant species. The aim of this study was to establish the efficacy of OGs in protecting durum wheat, characterized by an extreme susceptibility to fusariosis caused by Fusarium graminearum. Furthermore, the study of durum wheat plants with potentially altered endogenous OG levels, i.e. OG-Machine lines, is facilitating the elucidation of molecular mechanisms regulating plant defense activation upon sensing danger signals in cereals.