Increasing interest is devoted to carbohydrates for their roles in plant immunity. Some of them are elicitors of plant defenses whereas other ones act as signaling molecules in a manner similar to phytohormones. This review first describes the main classes of carbohydrates associated to plant immunity, their role and mode of action. More precisely, the state of the art about perception of “PAMP, MAMP, and DAMP (Pathogen-, Microbe-, Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns) type” oligosaccharides is presented and examples of induced defense events are provided. A particular attention is paid to the structure/activity relationships of these compounds. The role of sugars as signaling molecules, especially in plant microbe interactions, is also presented. Secondly, the potentialities and limits of foliar sprays of carbohydrates to stimulate plant immunity for crop protection against diseases are discussed, with focus on the roles of the leaf cuticle and phyllosphere microflora.

β-(1→3)-Glucans can be found as structural polysaccharides in cereals, in algae or as exo-polysaccharides secreted on the surfaces of mushrooms or fungi. Research has now established that β-(1→3)-glucans can trigger different immune responses and act as efficient immunostimulating agents. They constitute prevalent sources of carbons for microorganisms after subsequent recognition by digesting enzymes. Nevertheless, mechanisms associated with both roles are not yet clearly understood. This review focuses on the variety of elucidated molecular interactions that involve these natural or synthetic polysaccharides and their receptors, i.e., Dectin-1, CR3, glycolipids, langerin and carbohydrate-binding modules.

Some β-1,3-glucans and particularly sulfated laminarin (PS3) are known as resistance inducers (RIs) in grapevine against the downy mildew. However, their efficacy in vineyard is still often too low, which might be caused by a limited penetration through the leaf cuticle following spray application. We used (14) C-sucrose uptake experiments with grapevine leaves in order to select a surfactant as saccharide penetration enhancer. Our results showed that although sucrose foliar uptake was low, it was strongly enhanced by Dehscofix CO125 (DE), a highly ethoxylated surfactant. Fluorescent saccharides were then produced and laser scanning microscopy was used to analyze their foliar diffusion pattern in Arabidopsis thaliana and grapevine. Interestingly, sucrose and PS3 were seemingly able to penetrate the leaf cuticle only when formulated with DE. Diffusion could preferentially occur via stomata, anticlinal cell walls and trichomes. In grapevine, PS3 penetration rate was much higher on the stomateous abaxial surface of the leaf than on the adaxial surface. Finally, using DE allowed a higher level of downy mildew control by PS3, which corroborated diffusion observations. Our results have practical consequences for the improvement of treatments with saccharidic inducers on grape. That is, formulation of such RIs plays a critical role for their cuticular diffusion and consequently their efficacy. Also, spray application should preferentially target the abaxial surface of the leaves in order to maximize their penetration.