Dextran as an elicitor of phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis in tomato fruit against gray mold infection.

•Tomato fruits perceive dextran as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern.•Dextran accelerated fruit wound healing and induced systemic disease resistance.•Dextran upregulated phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways in fruit.•Callose deposition is involved in dextran-mediated disease resistance.•Dextran increased fruit metabolites that inhibit Botrytis cinerea spore germination.