The sugar composition and partial structure of the self-induced endogenous elicitor from potato.

The self-induced endogenous elicitor isolated from potato having molecular weight 9200 was degraded with trifluoroacetic acid to determine the sugar composition. The requisite composition of the elicitor was estimated to be a 2:3:4:7 mixture of galactose, rhamnose, arabinose, and galacturonic acid. Furthermore, the structure of oligogalacturonic acid moiety was found to consist mainly of alpha-1,4-pentagalacturonic acid by use of high pH anion exchange chromatography-pulsed amperometric detection.