Dataset Information

Effects of Trichoderma harzianum on Photosynthetic Characteristics and Fruit Quality of Tomato Plants.

ABSTRACT: The beneficial role of fungi from the Trichoderma genus and its secondary metabolites in promoting plant growth, uptake and use efficiency of macronutrients and oligo/micro-nutrients, activation of plant secondary metabolism and plant protection from diseases makes it interesting for application in environmentally friendly agriculture. However, the literature data on the effect of Trichoderma inoculation on tomato fruit quality is scarce. Commercially used tomato cultivars were chosen in combination with indigenous Trichodrema species previously characterized on molecular and biochemical level, to investigate the effect of Trichoderma on photosynthetic characteristics and fruit quality of plants grown in organic system of production. Examined cultivars differed in the majority of examined parameters. Response of cultivar Gružanski zlatni to Trichoderma application was more significant. As a consequence of increased epidermal flavonols and decreased chlorophyll, the nitrogen balance index in leaves has decreased, indicating a shift from primary to secondary metabolism. The quality of its fruit was altered in the sense of increased total flavonoids content, decreased starch, increased Bioaccumulation Index (BI) for Fe and Cr, and decreased BI for heavy metals Ni and Pb. Higher expression of swolenin gene in tomato roots of more responsive tomato cultivar indicates better root colonization, which correlates with observed positive effects of Trichodrema.

SUBMITTER: Vukelic ID

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8268988 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effects of Trichoderma harzianum on Photosynthetic Characteristics and Fruit Quality of Tomato Plants.

Vukelić Igor D ID Prokić Ljiljana T LT Racić Gordana M GM Pešić Mirjana B MB Bojović Mirjana M MM Sierka Edyta M EM Kalaji Hazem M HM Panković Dejana M DM

International journal of molecular sciences 20210628 13

The beneficial role of fungi from the Trichoderma genus and its secondary metabolites in promoting plant growth, uptake and use efficiency of macronutrients and oligo/micro-nutrients, activation of plant secondary metabolism and plant protection from diseases makes it interesting for application in environmentally friendly agriculture. However, the literature data on the effect of Trichoderma inoculation on tomato fruit quality is scarce. Commercially used tomato cultivars were cho ...[more]

PMID: 34203436

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Project description:Trichoderma is a fungal genus that includes species that are currently being used as biological control agents and/or as biofertilizers. In addition to the direct application of Trichoderma spp. as biocontrol agents in plant protection, recent studies have focused on the beneficial responses exerted on plants, stimulating the growth, activating the defenses, and/or improving nutrient uptake. The amdS gene, encoding an acetamidase of Aspergillus, has been used as a selectable marker for the transformation of filamentous fungi, including Trichoderma spp., but the physiological effects of the introduction of this gene into the genome of these microorganisms still remains unexplored. No evidence of amdS orthologous genes has been detected within the Trichoderma spp. genomes and the amdS heterologous expression in Trichoderma harzianum T34 did not affect the growth of this fungus in media lacking acetamide. However, it did confer the ability for the fungus to use this amide as a nitrogen source. Although a similar antagonistic behavior was observed for T34 and amdS transformants in dual cultures against Rhizoctonia solani, Botrytis cinerea, and Fusarium oxysporum, a significantly higher antifungal activity was detected in amdS transformants against F. oxysporum, compared to that of T34, in membrane assays on media lacking acetamide. In Trichoderma-tomato interaction assays, amdS transformants were able to promote plant growth to a greater extent than the wild-type T34, although compared with this strain the transformants showed similar capability to colonize tomato roots. Gene expression patterns from aerial parts of 3-week-old tomato plants treated with T34 and the amdS transformants have also been investigated using GeneChip Tomato Genome Arrays. The downregulation of defense genes and the upregulation of carbon and nitrogen metabolism genes observed in the microarrays were accompanied by (i) enhanced growth, (ii) increased carbon and nitrogen levels, and (iii) a higher sensitivity to B. cinerea infections in plants treated with amdS transformants as detected in greenhouse assays. These observations suggest that the increased plant development promoted by the amdS transformants was at expense of defenses.

Project description:Beneficial fungi in the genus Trichoderma are among the most widespread biocontrol agents of plant pathogens. Their role in triggering plant defenses against pathogens has been intensely investigated, while, in contrast, very limited information is available on induced barriers active against insects. The growing experimental evidence on this latter topic looks promising, and paves the way toward the development of Trichoderma strains and/or consortia active against multiple targets. However, the predictability and reproducibility of the effects that these beneficial fungi is still somewhat limited by the lack of an in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the specificity of their interaction with different crop varieties, and on how the environmental factors modulate this interaction. To fill this research gap, here we studied the transcriptome changes in tomato plants (cultivar "Dwarf San Marzano") induced by Trichoderma harzianum (strain T22) colonization and subsequent infestation by the aphid Macrosiphum euphorbiae. A wide transcriptome reprogramming, related to metabolic processes, regulation of gene expression and defense responses, was induced both by separate experimental treatments, which showed a synergistic interaction when concurrently applied. The most evident expression changes of defense genes were associated with the multitrophic interaction Trichoderma-tomato-aphid. Early and late genes involved in direct defense against insects were induced (i.e., peroxidase, GST, kinases and polyphenol oxidase, miraculin, chitinase), along with indirect defense genes, such as sesquiterpene synthase and geranylgeranyl phosphate synthase. Targeted and untargeted semi-polar metabolome analysis revealed a wide metabolome alteration showing an increased accumulation of isoprenoids in Trichoderma treated plants. The wide array of transcriptomic and metabolomics changes nicely fit with the higher mortality of aphids when feeding on Trichoderma treated plants, herein reported, and with the previously observed attractiveness of these latter toward the aphid parasitoid Aphidius ervi. Moreover, Trichoderma treated plants showed the over-expression of transcripts coding for several families of defense-related transcription factors (bZIP, MYB, NAC, AP2-ERF, WRKY), suggesting that the fungus contributes to the priming of plant responses against pest insects. Collectively, our data indicate that Trichoderma treatment of tomato plants induces transcriptomic and metabolomic changes, which underpin both direct and indirect defense responses.

Project description:BackgroundIt has recently been shown that the Trichoderma fungal species used for biocontrol of plant diseases are capable of interacting with plant roots directly, behaving as symbiotic microorganisms. With a view to providing further information at transcriptomic level about the early response of Trichoderma to a host plant, we developed a high-density oligonucleotide (HDO) microarray encompassing 14,081 Expressed Sequence Tag (EST)-based transcripts from eight Trichoderma spp. and 9,121 genome-derived transcripts of T. reesei, and we have used this microarray to examine the gene expression of T. harzianum either alone or in the presence of tomato plants, chitin, or glucose.ResultsGlobal microarray analysis revealed 1,617 probe sets showing differential expression in T. harzianum mycelia under at least one of the culture conditions tested as compared with one another. Hierarchical clustering and heat map representation showed that the expression patterns obtained in glucose medium clustered separately from the expression patterns observed in the presence of tomato plants and chitin. Annotations using the Blast2GO suite identified 85 of the 257 transcripts whose probe sets afforded up-regulated expression in response to tomato plants. Some of these transcripts were predicted to encode proteins related to Trichoderma-host (fungus or plant) associations, such as Sm1/Elp1 protein, proteases P6281 and PRA1, enchochitinase CHIT42, or QID74 protein, although previously uncharacterized genes were also identified, including those responsible for the possible biosynthesis of nitric oxide, xenobiotic detoxification, mycelium development, or those related to the formation of infection structures in plant tissues.ConclusionThe effectiveness of the Trichoderma HDO microarray to detect different gene responses under different growth conditions in the fungus T. harzianum strongly indicates that this tool should be useful for further assays that include different stages of plant colonization, as well as for expression studies in other Trichoderma spp. represented on it. Using this microarray, we have been able to define a number of genes probably involved in the transcriptional response of T. harzianum within the first hours of contact with tomato plant roots, which may provide new insights into the mechanisms and roles of this fungus in the Trichoderma-plant interaction.

Dataset Information

Effects of Trichoderma harzianum on Photosynthetic Characteristics and Fruit Quality of Tomato Plants.

Publications

Effects of <i>Trichoderma harzianum</i> on Photosynthetic Characteristics and Fruit Quality of Tomato Plants.

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