Interactions of a potential plant elicitor mannolipid with plant model membranes

The use of chemical pesticides causes problems for human health and environment. In this context, there is an increasing interest for alternative products such as biopesticides. Among them, elicitors act on the plants by inducing systemic resistance against diseases caused by fungal, viral, bacterial agents and insects.
The target of the elicitors is supposed to be the plant plasma membranes (PPM). The main mechanisms of interaction of many elicitors involve proteic receptors but lipid-based elicitors (LBE) may preferably interact with the lipidic fractions of PPM. However there is no detailed information at the molecular level on the PPM-LBE interactions.
Our work is focused on a original synthetic LBE composed of a mannoside linked to a myristic acid. It has potential elicitor activities as shown by the assays on tobacco root cells. These activities could be related to its interaction with the lipidic phase of PPM. Since PPM are complex entities, the analyses of the PPM- molecule interactions are quite difficult. In this context, these interactions were carried out using biomimetic membranes of PPM such as Langmuir monolayers and multilayers. The effects of our molecule on these membranar systems were investigated by biophysical and in silico approaches.