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Pythium infection activates conserved plant defense responses in mosses

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Abstract

The moss Physcomitrella patens (P. patens) is a useful model to study abiotic stress responses since it is highly tolerant to drought, salt and osmotic stress. However, very little is known about the defense mechanisms activated in this moss after pathogen assault. In this study, we show that P. patens activated multiple and similar responses against Pythium irregulare and Pythium debaryanum, including the reinforcement of the cell wall, induction of the defense genes CHS, LOX and PAL, and accumulation of the signaling molecules jasmonic acid (JA) and its precursor 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid (OPDA). However, theses responses were not sufficient and infection could not be prevented leading to hyphae colonization of moss tissues and plant decay. Pythium infection induced reactive oxygen species production and caused cell death of moss tissues. Taken together, these data indicate that Pythium infection activates in P. patens common responses to those previously characterized in flowering plants. Microscopic analysis also revealed intracellular relocation of chloroplasts in Pythium-infected tissues toward the infection site. In addition, OPDA, JA and its methyl ester methyl jasmonate induced the expression of PAL. Our results show for the first time JA and OPDA accumulation in a moss and suggest that this defense pathway is functional and has been maintained during the evolution of plants.

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Abbreviations

P. patens :

Physcomitrella patens

P. irregulare :

Pythium irregulare

P. debaryanum :

Pythium debaryanum

JA:

Jasmonic acid

MeJA:

Methyl jasmonate

OPDA:

12-Oxo-phytodienoic acid

SA:

Salicylic acid

ET:

Ethylene

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

LOX:

Lipoxygenase

PAL:

Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase

CHS:

Chalcone synthase

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Roberto Solano (Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-CSIC, Spain) and Alicia Arias (IIBCE, Uruguay) for their generous gift of Pythium irregulare (Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-CSIC; Madrid, Spain) and Pythium debaryanum (collection INIA; Las Brujas, Uruguay), respectively. We thank Harvey C. Hoch (NYSAES, Cornell University, USA) for supplying us with the dye solophenyl flavine 7GFE500. We also thank Marcos Montesano (Facultad de Ciencias, UdelaR, Uruguay), Roberto Solano and Sabina Vidal (Facultad de Ciencias, UdelaR, Uruguay) for helpful discussion and critical reading of the manuscript. The authors thank DINACYT (Fondo Clemente Estable 9008) Uruguay, ANII (Fondo Clemente Estable FCE2007_376) Uruguay and UdelaR Uruguay/CSIC Spain (Joint project) for financial support. A. Castro was supported by a PEDECIBA fellowship, Uruguay. The Physcomitrella ESTs were obtained from the RIKEN Biological Research Center, Tsukuba, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología Molecular, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable (IIBCE), Avenida Italia 3318, CP 11600, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Juan Pablo Oliver, Alexandra Castro, Carina Gaggero & Inés Ponce de León

  2. Departamento de Genética Molecular de Plantas, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Campus Universidad Autónoma, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Tomas Cascón & Carmen Castresana

  3. U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, Gainesville, FL, 32608-1067, USA

    Eric A. Schmelz

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  1. Juan Pablo Oliver
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Correspondence to Inés Ponce de León.

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Authors Juan Pablo Oliver and Alexandra Castro contributed equally to this work.

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Oliver, J.P., Castro, A., Gaggero, C. et al. Pythium infection activates conserved plant defense responses in mosses. Planta 230, 569–579 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-009-0969-4

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