Aluminum induces cross-resistance of potato to Phytophthora infestans

Magdalena Arasimowicz-Jelonek,Kinga Drzewiecka,Jolanta Floryszak-Wieczorek,Dariusz Abramowski,Karolina Izbiańska,Jagna Chmielowska-Bąk

doi:10.1007/s00425-013-2008-8

Magdalena Arasimowicz-Jelonek, Kinga Drzewiecka + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-013-2008-8

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Abstract

The phenomenon of cross-resistance allows plants to acquire resistance to a broad range of stresses after previous exposure to one specific factor. Although this stress–response relationship has been known for decades, the sequence of events that underpin cross-resistance remains unknown. Our experiments revealed that susceptible potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Bintje) undergoing aluminum (Al) stress at the root level showed enhanced defense responses correlated with reduced disease symptoms after leaf inoculation with Phytophthora infestans. The protection capacity of Al to subsequent stress was associated with the local accumulation of H2O2 in roots and systemic activation of salicylic acid (SA) and nitric oxide (NO) dependent pathways. The most crucial Al-mediated changes involved coding of NO message in an enhanced S-nitrosothiol formation in leaves tuned with an abundant SNOs accumulation in the main vein of leaves. Al-induced distal NO generation was correlated with the overexpression of PR-2 and PR-3 at both mRNA and protein activity levels. In turn, after contact with a pathogen we observed early up-regulation of SA-mediated defense genes, e.g. PR1, PR-2, PR-3 and PAL, and subsequent disease limitation. Taken together Al exposure induced distal changes in the biochemical stress imprint, facilitating more effective responses to a subsequent pathogen attack.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00425-013-2008-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

Acid soils account for approximately 35 % of arable land and are one of the most important limitations to plant production worldwide (Ryan et al 2011)
A distinct pattern of expression was observed for PR-1, since Al did not elicit the significant rise of PR-1 transcript accumulation in distal organs
It worth pointing that the used Al concentration (250 μM AlCl3) includes in the tolerance limit noted for potato plants, since inhibition of root growth by 50 %, known as the tolerance index, was observed at Al concentration of 500 μM

Summary

Introduction

Acid soils account for approximately 35 % of arable land and are one of the most important limitations to plant production worldwide (Ryan et al 2011). The primary target of phytotoxic Al3+ are plant roots, in which inhibition of root elongation and alternation of root architecture is observed even within minutes of the exposure (Doncheva et al 2005). Effective plant defense responses are usually realized by the activation of specific signaling components with the expression of a battery of target genes, leading to tolerance or resistance mechanisms. An increasing body of evidence shows that plant exposure to one specific stress leads to acquired resistance to another stress. This phenomenon is known as cross-tolerance, cross-resistance or multiple-stress resistance and was shown for different types of stress (Steinberg 2012). In relation to abiotic stresses it was demonstrated that wounding increased salt stress tolerance in tomato (Capiati et al 2006), whereas cold acclimation can increase heat tolerance of winter rye, UV radiation enhanced drought tolerance in Pisum sativum and Triticum aestivum (Alexieva et al 2001), heat shock improved tolerance of maize to heat, chilling, salt and drought (Gong et al 2001)

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