Abstract
Arbuscular mycorrhiza and Trichoderma are well-known beneficial fungi whose plant growth promotion and defense elicitation effects are known. However, the molecular and biochemical processes underlying the beneficial effects of these priming microorganisms have not been fully elucidated yet. On this basis, the present work aimed to use metabolomics to dissect comprehensively the modulation of secondary metabolism induced by mycorrhiza and Trichoderma, using tomato as a model plant. To this aim, either mycorrhiza or Trichoderma were applied to tomato roots at transplanting using a commercial formulation and then harvested once the mutualistic relationship was well established. Shoots were analyzed using an MS-based untargeted metabolomics approach, and differential metabolites identified by multivariate statistics were subjected to pathway analysis. Together with promoting plant growth, the treatments induced a broad molecular reprogramming with the phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway (including defense phenolics like coumarins and glycosylated anthocyanins) being strongly elicited. An accumulation of auxins, cytokinins, and jasmonate (especially after treatment with Trichoderma) could be observed concerning phytohormone profiles. Overall, the broad and distinctive effects triggered by mycorrhiza and Trichoderma in tomato secondary metabolism supported both plant growth promotion and immunity.
Highlights
Increasing food demand, with a growing population and mounting environmental attention to the impact of agriculture, point to the green revolution [1]
Tomato plants inoculated with either Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) or Trichoderma spp. displayed an increased leaf biomass index compared to the control, indicating a growth-promoting effect
Notwithstanding, a broad molecular cell re-programming was observed to include some common responses between the beneficial fungi, together with several distinctive responses
Summary
Increasing food demand, with a growing population and mounting environmental attention to the impact of agriculture, point to the green revolution [1]. The purpose of this revolution is the increase of plant yield through more sustainable approaches. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and Trichoderma spp. are widely used as plant biostimulants [3] to increase crop production due to their growth-stimulating effect(s) and control towards rhizospheric pathogens [4]. Trichoderma spp. are beneficial to plants due to their ability to boost crop nutrition, growth, and stress response, to induce resistance, and to produce fungal cell wall degrading enzymes [7,8]. The effect of AMF has been demonstrated to increase macronutrient (N, P, and Fe) and micronutrient
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