Highly resistant wheat varieties exhibit a typical hypersensitive response when infected with an avirulent race of the stem rust fungus. Host cells which are penetrated by a fungal haustorium undergo rapid necrotization, thus depriving the biotrophic parasite of its nutritional basis. This rapid cell death is correlated with the deposition of lignin or lignin-like material in the host cell walls and protoplasts. Inhibition of lignin biosynthesis delays necrotization of penetrated host cells and partially breaks resistance of wheat to stem rust. In resistant plants, an increase in the activities of the general phenylpropanoid pathway and of the specific branch pathway of lignin biosynthesis can be detected at the time of the hypersensitive cell death, contrasting to decreased activities in susceptible near-isogenic plants. The participation of both an elicitor and a suppressor in the signal exchange between host and parasite has been suggested. An elicitor of lignification could be isolated from fungal cell walls. An endogenous suppressor of the resistance reaction was found in wheat cell walls.Lignin, the second most abundant organic compound on earth, is extremely resistant to microbial degradation (1,2) and thus constitutes one of the most effective mechanical barriers against pathogenic invasion (3,4). Consequently, the lignin content of higher plants has long been recognized as an important factor in the resistance against the attack by a myriad of potential pathogens.In addition to its role as a preformed resistance factor, Hijwegen (5) has also proposed active induction of lignification as a defense mechanism of cucumber against Cladosporium.Subsequently, in a number of hostpathogen interactions, induced lignification has been proposed as the active