ABSTRACT:
Fungal pathogens produce an array of toxin with various chemical structures, specificity, mechanism of action and functions. In recent years fungal toxins have been intensively studied, mainly for enhancing innate immunity in plants. Innate immunity is the only line of defense in plants, whose elicitation by toxin at optimum dilution may trigger the accumulation of various bioactive molecules such as defense enzymes, pathogenesis related proteins and secondary metabolite. Production of these defense related molecules may pave the way for the use of toxic metabolite to counter disease in plants, constituting a potential and cost effective alternative for toxic fungicides. Furthermore, this simple methods might help in enhancement of secondary metabolite production in medicinal plants which eventually be applied in the pharmaceutical industry. Henceforth the present review focus on the role of fungal phytotoxin as an elicitor triggering innate immune responses in plants.