What role do biological elicitors such as alpha-keto acids play in plant defenses?
Brunetti: Elicitors trigger plant defensive mechanisms. Different elicitors trigger different defenses. In nature, plant defenses can be passive (for example, cell walls and cuticle) and active (enzymes such as chitinases that directly attack chitin-containing pathogens). Many of the active defenses are triggered by pathogen-infection processes that are sensed by the plant. Elicitors contained in KeyPlex materials can turn on these active defense mechanisms so that the plants have a higher level of defense. It is important to use elicitors in combination with plant nutrients such as those found in KeyPlex.
