Tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) is a globally cultivated, economically important crop. It is severely attacked by the bacterial speck pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, thereby causing long lasting damage to the economy. Induction of systemic acquired resistance by biolicitor application is an environment-friendly measure of plant protection and disease management. The present study thus focused upon studying the effects of aqueous fruit extracts of Azadirachta indica (neem) on the activity and isoforms profiles of Peroxidase (POX) and Lipoxygenase (LOX). Tomato plants were raised in sterile conditions and treated with neem extract and the pathogen either singly or in combination. Activities of POX and LOX were measured at 24 h intervals upto 5 days and disease severity was measured in the leaves emerging after 2 weeks of treatment. Isoform profiling of acidic isoPOX and isoLOX was performed by BASIC native PAGE. The results demonstrate that neem extract could significantly reduce disease severity in the treated plants by inducing activities of POX and LOX. Additional POX and LOX isoforms were expressed in the test plants.
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