Research on the mechanisms of plant defense responses to stress and
pathogen attack has attracted much attention in recent years. This
increasing interest stems from the fact that the tools of molecular
biology now enable us to study the molecular basis of old biological
concepts such as host-pathogen recognition (and particularly the gene-
for-gene relationship), hypersensitive cell death and systemic acquired
resistance. Our knowledge about avirulence and resistance genes,
elicitors, signal transduction and genes involved in plant defense is
rapidly expanding. Moreover we are just beginning to test in planta the
potential of these results for biotechnological applications, aimed at
improving plant resistance to diseases. The 2nd Conference of the
European Foundation for Plant Pathology, hosted by the "Societe Fran
aise de Phytopathologie", was devoted to "Mechanisms of plant defense
responses" and was held in Strasbourg, France. It brought together over
350 scientists from universities, research institutes and private
sectors of 24 countries. Major advances in the areas under study have
been reviewed in plenary lectures and are developed in the main articles
of this book. Over 160 high-quality posters were presented and are
summarized in short articles. Data from outstanding posters, which were
discussed after a short oral presentation, are found in extended
articles. As a whole the book presents a collection of papers arranged
in six sections and reflecting the present day state-of-the-art of
research in the field of plant defense reactions.
