Pretreatment with salicylic acid primes parsley cells for enhanced ion transport following elicitation.

Pretreatment with salicylic acid (SA), an inducer of plant disease resistance, enhanced the capacity of parsley cells for the induction of a rapid K(+)/pH response and the subsequent coumarin (phytoalexin) secretion. In SA-primed cells, a low elicitor dose induced these two responses to a similar extent as did a high elicitor dose in non-primed cells. These observations suggest that the SA-mediated augmentation of the early K(+)/pH response may contribute to the enhancement of subsequent coumarin secretion. As the amphotericin B-induced K(+)/pH response was not enhanced in SA-primed cells, it is concluded that signaling components that are improved by priming are located between elicitor signal perception and the plasma membrane transporters mediating the K(+)/pH response.