Laminarans are of interest because they have been shown to induce various immune responses in animals and plants. These β-D-glucans differ from each other by their branching rate, which is possibly responsible for their biological activities. In the present study, we characterized a laminaran fraction extracted from Laminaria hyperborea and named LAM2 using sugar composition and structural analyses (NMR). Then, we evaluated its activity as a potential plant elicitor in vitro on tomato seedlings using gene expression analysis and cell wall immunofluorescence labeling. Our study showed that LAM2 isolated from L. hyperborea is a succinylated laminaran which significantly enhanced the plant defense of tomato seedlings and induced cell wall modifications, suggesting a higher elicitor activity than the laminaran standard extracted from Laminaria digitata.
