Abstract
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation directly affects plants and microorganisms, but also alters the species-specific interactions between them. The distinct bands of UV radiation, UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C have different effects on plants and their associated microorganisms. While UV-A and UV-B mainly affect morphogenesis and phototropism, UV-B and UV-C strongly trigger secondary metabolite production. Short wave (<350 nm) UV radiation negatively affects plant pathogens in direct and indirect ways. Direct effects can be ascribed to DNA damage, protein polymerization, enzyme inactivation and increased cell membrane permeability. UV-C is the most energetic radiation and is thus more effective at lower doses to kill microorganisms, but by consequence also often causes plant damage. Indirect effects can be ascribed to UV-B specific pathways such as the UVR8-dependent upregulated defense responses in plants, UV-B and UV-C upregulated ROS accumulation, and secondary metabolite production such as phenolic compounds. In this review, we summarize the physiological and molecular effects of UV radiation on plants, microorganisms and their interactions. Considerations for the use of UV radiation to control microorganisms, pathogenic as well as non-pathogenic, are listed. Effects can be indirect by increasing specialized metabolites with plant pre-treatment, or by directly affecting microorganisms.
Highlights
Life on Earth is exposed to the light spectrum ranging from ultraviolet-B (UV-B) to infrared wavelengths (295–2500 nm), hereafter referred to as natural radiation
UV radiation is only a minor fraction of the sunlight reaching Earth’s surface, it causes significant biological effects on organisms which can affect plant-phyllosphere interactions, and indirectly plant-rhizosphere interactions, with most studies performed on UV-B (Robson et al, 2015; Carvalho and Castillo, 2018)
While we do contemplate on the potential of the application of UV in plant protection, we primarily provide a broad overview on the effects and possibilities of UV radiation
Summary
Life on Earth is exposed to the light spectrum ranging from ultraviolet-B (UV-B) to infrared wavelengths (295–2500 nm), hereafter referred to as natural radiation. Specialized metabolite accumulation is often ascribed to hormonal changes in the plants, especially due to an increased expression of genes of the salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonate (JA) pathways, suggesting the stimulation of defense mechanisms that potentially impact microorganisms and other leaf dwellers (Vanhaelewyn et al, 2016a; Vandenbussche et al, 2018).
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