Involvement of a putative Lycopersicon esculentum wall-associated kinase in the early steps of tomato–Orobanche ramosa interaction

The reported results demonstrate that Orobanche ramosa exudates, released over seed germination, are involved in the early tomato perception of this pathogen. For the first time, a 2642 bp cDNA displaying characteristic features of wall-associated kinase receptor was cloned and characterized in tomato. Expression studies revealed that transcript level of this Lycopersicon esculentum wall-associated kinase (LeWAK) increased early in tomato roots and in cell suspensions challenged with Orobanche ramosa. The involvement of LeWAK as a sensor of cell wall alterations during broomrape attack and the subsequent activation of defense reactions is discussed in this paper.