Description

Clusterbean is the fodder crop of India. The plant is grown widely in India but the productivity is greatly affected by insects, pests and fungal pathogens. The major factors contributing to low yield are the diseases caused by Alternaria spp., Rhizopus spp. Many workers have tried to improve yield by conventional methods but they have proven inadequate. A new approach was to study the host-pathogen interaction leading to defense mechanism. This approach was exploited in the present study to know the factors governing resistance at biochemical level. In this investigation the defense response was analyzed in elicited seedlings of clusterbean variety, GUJARAT-1. The defense gene expression was studied in terms of accumulation of PR proteins, -1,3 glucanase and chitinase. The level of these biochemical compounds was studied in terms of their extractable enzyme activities. The level of biochemical compounds was analyzed in the seedlings of GUJARAT-1 elicited with biotic and abiotic elicitors at specific time period.