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The rice/maize pathogen Cochliobolus spp. infect and reproduce on Arabidopsis revealing differences in defensive phytohormone function between monocots and dicots
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 Authours
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Ronny Völz*, Ju-Young Park*, Soonok Kim, Sook-Young Park, William Harris, Hyunjung Chung, and Yong-Hwan Lee |
| Title |
The rice/maize pathogen Cochliobolus spp. infect and reproduce on Arabidopsis revealing differences in defensive phytohormone function between monocots and dicots |
| Journal |
PLANT JOURNAL, 2020 (0) ~ |
Abstract
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The fungal genus Cochliobolus describes necrotrophic pathogens that give rise to significant losses on rice, wheat, and maize. Revealing plant mechanisms of non-host resistance (NHR) against Cochliobolus will help to uncover strategies that can be exploited in engineered cereals. Therefore, we developed a heterogeneous pathosystem and studied the ability of Cochliobolus to infect dicotyledons. We report here that C. miyabeanus and C. heterostrophus infect Arabidopsis accessions and produce functional conidia, thereby demonstrating the ability to accept brassica species as host-plants. Some ecotypes exhibited a high susceptibility, whereas others hindered the necrotrophic disease progression of the Cochliobolus strains. Natural variation in NHR among the tested Arabidopsis accessions can advance the identification of genetic loci that prime the plant’s defense repertoire. We found that applied phytotoxin-containing conidial-fluid-extracts of C. miyabeanus caused necrotic lesions on rice leaves but provoked only minor irritations on Arabidopsis. This result implies that C. miyabeanus-phytotoxins are insufficiently adapted to promote dicot-colonization, which corresponds with a retarded infection progression. Previous studies on rice demonstrated that ethylene (ET) promotes C. miyabeanus infection, whereas salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) exert a minor function. However, in Arabidopsis, we revealed that the genetic disruption of the ET and JA-signaling-pathway compromises basal resistance against Cochliobolus, whereas SA-biosynthesis mutants showed a reduced susceptibility. Our results refer to the synergistic action of ET/JA and indicate distinct defense-systems between Arabidopsis and rice to confine Cochliobolus propagation. Moreover, this heterogeneous pathosystem may help to reveal mechanisms of NHR and associated defensive genes against Cochliobolus infection. |
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