In their natural environment plants are continuously exposed to a wide range of abiotic and biotic stresses, for example pathogens. Those can lower the crop productivity and influence our food security. Priming the crop plants for an enhanced defense against pathogens is an environmentally friendly strategy of plant protection. Prior priming of plants by an inducer results in a faster and stronger response of the plant defense to following pathogen attack. In our work we tested whether soybean can be primed for enhanced defense against the phytonematode Pratylenchus penetrans, which is a major pest of soybean in Germany.