Agglutination of plant protoplasts by fungal cell wall glucans.

Glucans, called elicitors, isolated from cell walls of Phytophthora infestans, caused rapid agglutination and death of protoplasts isolated from potato leaf tissue. Cells incubated with high concentrations of elicitor were rapidly killed, but did not agglutinate. Agglutination and cell death did not occur with any of several commercial polysaccharides including laminarin, but laminarin did inhibit elicitor-mediated agglutination. The results are consistent with the existence of specific elicitor receptor sites on the outer surface of potato leaf plasma membranes.