Elicitors are molecules that stimulate any of a number of defense responses in plants. Research over the past decade has focused on the mechanisms by which plant cells perceive and transduce these biological signals to activate defense responses. Of particular interest has been the identification of specific elicitor-binding proteins that might function as physiological receptors in the signal transduction cascade. The existence of specific high-affinity binding sites has been demonstrated for oligosaccharide, glycopeptide, and peptide elicitors, and candidate elicitor-binding proteins have been identified for several of them. The properties of these binding sites/proteins are consistent with those expected of physiologically important receptors, although experimental verification of the role of these binding proteins as receptors has not yet been obtained. The purification and characterization of specific elicitor-binding proteins is essential for a detailed understanding of the molecular basis for the signal exchange between plant hosts and microbial pathogens that leads to activation of host defenses.

中文翻译：

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植物中的微生物引发剂及其受体。

引发剂是刺激植物中许多防御反应中的任何反应的分子。过去十年的研究集中在植物细胞感知和转导这些生物信号以激活防御反应的机制上。特别感兴趣的是鉴定可能在信号转导级联反应中充当生理受体的特定激发子结合蛋白。已证明寡糖，糖肽和肽激发子具有特定的高亲和力结合位点，并且已经为其中的几种鉴定了候选激发子结合蛋白。这些结合位点/蛋白质的特性与生理学上重要的受体所期望的特性一致，尽管尚未获得这些结合蛋白作为受体的作用的实验验证。特定激发子结合蛋白的纯化和表征对于详细理解植物宿主与微生物病原体之间导致宿主防御激活的信号交换的分子基础至关重要。