Abstract
The non-protein amino acid β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) is known to be a priming agent for a more efficient activation of cellular defence responses and a potent inducer of resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. Nevertheless, most of the studies on priming have been carried out in Arabidopsis. In potato, the effect of BABA was demonstrated only on biotic stress tolerance. We investigated the effect of BABA on the drought tolerance of potato and found that soil drenched with BABA at a final concentration of 0.3 mM improves the drought tolerance of potato. Water loss from the leaves of the primed plants is attenuated and the yield is increased compared to the unprimed drought-stressed plants. The metabolite composition of the tubers of the BABA-treated plants is less affected by drought than the tuber composition of the non-treated plants. Nitric oxide and ROS (reactive oxygen species) production is increased in the BABA-treated roots but not in the leaves. In the leaves of the BABA-treated plants, the expression of the drought-inducible gene StDS2 is delayed, but the expression of ETR1, encoding an ethylene receptor, is maintained for a longer period under the drought conditions than in the leaves of the non-treated, drought-stressed control plants. This result suggests that the ethylene-inducible gene expression remains suppressed in primed plants leading to a longer leaf life and increased tuber yield compared to the non-treated, drought-stressed plants. The priming effect of BABA in potato, however, is transient and reverts to an unprimed state within a few weeks.
Highlights
Crops often suffer from water shortage with a greater likelihood of drought stress in the future because of climate change and a decline in water resources for agriculture
Similar to that found in Arabidopsis, the plants treated with BABA at concentrations of 0.3 and 0.35 mM lost significantly less water from their leaves (RWC: 82.0 and 81.4%, respectively) than the non-treated control plants
This conclusion is based on the following findings: (1) the plants treated with BABA at a concentration range of 0.3–0.35 mM lost significantly less water from their leaves than the non-treated control plants; (2) a
Summary
Crops often suffer from water shortage with a greater likelihood of drought stress in the future because of climate change and a decline in water resources for agriculture. Plants contain pre-existing and induced defences to mediate their adaptation to stress conditions. Over the past decades, increasing evidence has demonstrated that plants can be sensitised/primed for more efficient activation of cellular defence responses [1]. Most of the studies on priming have been carried out in Arabidopsis, in which several mutants have been identified with an altered priming phenotype. The edr mutant was demonstrated to be constitutively primed suggesting that EDR1, encoding a putative mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAPKKK), functions as a negative regulator of priming [2]. The other genes identified in Arabidopsis, NPR1, CPR1, and CPR5, are associated with salicylic acid (SA)mediated priming for enhanced defence-gene expression [3]. The primed state of Arabidopsis plants is transferred to their progeny and confers better protection from pathogen attack than in the descendants of unprimed plants [5]
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