Seed Priming with Jasmonic Acid Counteracts Root Knot Nematode Infection in Tomato by Modulating the Activity and Expression of Antioxidative Enzymes.

Shagun Bali,Puja Ohri,Anket Sharma,Renu Bhardwaj,Sumit G Gandhi,Vijay Lakshmi Jamwal,Parvaiz Ahmad,Parminder Kaur,Mohammad Ajmal Ali

doi:10.3390/biom10010098

Abstract

The environmental stress, biotic as well as abiotic, is the main cause of decreased growth and crop production. One of the stress-causing agents in plants are parasitic nematodes responsible for crop loss. Jasmonic acid (JA) is recognized as one of signaling molecules in defense-related responses in plants, however, its role under nematode infestation is unclear. Therefore, the present study was planned to traverse the role of JA in boosting the activities of antioxidative enzymes in tomato seedlings during nematode inoculation. Application of JA declined oxidative damage by decreasing O2•− content, nuclear and membrane damage under nematode stress. JA treatment elevated the activities of SOD, POD, CAT, APOX, DHAR, GPOX, GR, and PPO in nematode-infested seedlings. Seed soaking treatment of JA upregulated the expression of SOD, POD, CAT, and GPOX under nematode stress. Various amino acids were found in tomato seedlings and higher content of aspartic acid, histidine, asparagine, glutamine, glutamic acid, glycine, threonine, lysine, arginine, B-alanine, GABA, phenylalanine, proline, and ornithine was observed in seeds soaked with JA (100 nM) treatment during nematode inoculation. The results suggest an indispensable role of JA in basal defense response in plants during nematode stress.

Highlights

The crop production and food safety are at risk due to the environmental fluctuations, and this environmental change disturbs the vegetation and ecological balance
Results obtained by the study of Kesba and El-Beltagi [60] demonstrated that nematode-infested grape roots showed an increase in the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APOX), and PPO in comparison to non-infested grape rootstocks
Abiotic stress activated the accumulation of Jasmonic acid (JA) which further regulated AsA-GSH pathway by increasing the activities and transcript levels of APOX, MDHAR, dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), and glutathione reductase (GR) and contents of GSH and AsA played a critical role in tolerance against stress in Agropyron cristatum [66]

Summary

Introduction

The crop production and food safety are at risk due to the environmental fluctuations, and this environmental change disturbs the vegetation and ecological balance. Plant parasitic nematodes affect a broad spectrum of vegetable crops and reduce the yield and quality of the crops. Root-knot nematodes (RKN) are placed at the topmost rank in the list of plant pathogens [1]. It is estimated that RKN can cause damage of about US$ 157 billion per annum to worldwide agricultural crops [2]. Nematode infection causes a subsequent decrease in crop yield and made them susceptible to other pathogens too. Meloidogyne incognita, has been recognized as the most damaging parasite among

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion