Untargeted metabolomics reveals PTI-associated metabolites

Lina Muñoz Hoyos, Wan Petra Anisha, Chen Meng, Karin Kleigrewe, Corinna Dawid, Ralph Hückelhoven, Remco Stam

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Plants employ a multilayered immune system to combat pathogens. In one layer, recognition of Pathogen- or Microbe-Associated Molecular Patterns or elicitors, triggers a cascade that leads to defence against the pathogen and Pattern Triggered Immunity. Secondary or specialised metabolites (SMs) are expected to play a role, because they are potentially anti-fungal compounds. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants inoculated with Alternaria solani s.l. show symptoms of infection after inoculation. Plants inoculated with Alternaria alternata remain symptomless. We hypothesised that pattern-triggered induction of resistance related metabolites in tomato contributes to the resistance against A. alternata. We compared the metabolomic profile (metabolome) of tomato after treatments with A. alternata, A. solani and the fungal elicitor chitin, and identified SMs involved in early defence of tomato plants. We revealed differential metabolome fingerprints. The composition of A. alternata and chitin induced metabolomes show larger overlap with each other than with the A. solani induced metabolome. We identify 65 metabolites possibly associated with PTI in tomato plants, including NAD and trigonelline. We confirm that trigonelline inhibits fungal growth in vitro at physiological concentrations. Thus, a true pattern-triggered, chemical defence is mounted against A. alternata, which contains anti-fungal compounds that could be interesting for crop protection strategies.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1224-1237
Number of pages14
JournalPlant Cell and Environment
Volume47
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2024

Keywords

  • Alternaria
  • Solanum lycopersicum
  • early blight
  • plant defence
  • specialised metabolites
  • trigonelline

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