Low concentrations of salicylic acid stimulate insect elicitor responses in Zea mays seedlings.

Salicylic acid (SA) generally is thought to suppress jasmonic acid (JA) related signaling events. However, when we treated the roots of corn seedlings overnight with low physiological concentrations of SA (50 μM), we found a priming effect of this pretreatment on typical insect elicitor (IE)-induced responses in the leaves of these plants. IE-induced JA was more than 2-fold up regulated in SA-pretreated plants.