Abstract
Trichoderma spp colonizes the plant rhizosphere and provides pathogen resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, and enhance growth and development. We evaluated the Arabidopsis-Trichoderma interaction using a split system in which Trichoderma atroviride and Trichoderma virens were grown on PDA or MS medium. Arabidopsis growth was significantly increased at 3 and 5 days post-inoculation with both Trichoderma species, when the fungal strains were grown on PDA in split interaction. The analysis of DR5:uidA reporter line revealed a greater auxin accumulation in root tips when the fungi were grown on PDA in a split interaction. The root hair-defective phenotype of Arabidopsis rhd6 mutant was reverted with both Trichoderma species, even in split interactions. At 12 °C, Trichoderma species in split interactions were able to mitigate the effects of cold stress on the plant, and also Trichoderma induced the AtERD14 expression, a cold related gene. Volatile organic compounds analysis revealed that Trichoderma strains produce mainly sesquiterpenes, and that the type and abundance of these compounds was dependent on the fungal strain and the culture medium. Our results show that fungal nutrition is an important factor in plant growth in a split interaction.
Highlights
Plant development is influenced by environmental factors such as water, light, temperature, nutrients, and microorganisms
In order to assess the plant promotion effect on Arabidopsis when Trichoderma is grown in different culture media, four experimental conditions were analyzed as follows: (i) direct or contact interaction (At-MS), (ii) split interaction without contact when fungus was grown on MS medium (At/MS), (iii) split interaction without contact when fungus was grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium (At/PDA), and (iv) control plants grown on MS without inoculation (Figs 1A and 2A)
With respect to the lateral roots, the major difference was observed in the split system with both Trichoderma strains on PDA medium, in which the plants achieved nearly 20 lateral roots in contrast to the 10 lateral roots in the control in the absence of fungi (Fig. 1A,D)
Summary
Plant development is influenced by environmental factors such as water, light, temperature, nutrients, and microorganisms. A Trichoderma-plant interaction in the absence of physical contact between the organisms looks highly attractive due to the beneficial effects of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are produced by the microorganism during the interaction with the plants. We reported that T. atroviride and T. virens enhance plant growth[9], in particular we stated that this plant growth effect is potentiated when the interaction occurred without physical contact. In this split interaction Trichoderma species were grown on Murashige-Skoog (MS) medium, a conventional culture medium for Arabidopsis[9]. We analyzed the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profiles emitted by T. atroviride and T. virens when the fungi were grown in split interaction on MS or PDA media. Based on the data reported below, we show that fungal nutrition is an important factor in promoting the growth of Arabidopsis in a split interaction
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