Differences in Pathogenesis-Related Protein Expression and Polyphenolic Compound Accumulation Reveal Insights into Tomato– Pythium aphanidermatum Interaction

Seham A. Soliman, Abdulaziz A. Al-Askar, Sherien Sobhy, Marwa A. Samy, Esraa Hamdy, Omaima A. Sharaf, Yiming Su, Said I. Behiry () and Ahmed Abdelkhalek ()
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Seham A. Soliman: Plant Protection and Biomolecular Diagnosis Department, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria 21934, Egypt
Abdulaziz A. Al-Askar: Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Sherien Sobhy: Plant Protection and Biomolecular Diagnosis Department, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria 21934, Egypt
Marwa A. Samy: Plant Protection and Biomolecular Diagnosis Department, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria 21934, Egypt
Esraa Hamdy: Plant Protection and Biomolecular Diagnosis Department, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria 21934, Egypt
Omaima A. Sharaf: Department of Agricultural Microbiology, National Research Centre, Cairo 12622, Egypt
Yiming Su: Utah Water Research Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84341, USA
Said I. Behiry: Agricultural Botany Department, Faculty of Agriculture (Saba Basha), Alexandria University, Alexandria 21531, Egypt
Ahmed Abdelkhalek: Plant Protection and Biomolecular Diagnosis Department, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria 21934, Egypt

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: Plant diseases significantly reduce crop yields, threatening food security and agricultural sustainability. Fungi are the most destructive type of phytopathogen, and they are responsible for major yield losses in some of the most crucial crops grown across the world. In this study, a fungus isolate was detected from infected tomato plants and molecularly identified as Pythium aphanidermatum (GenBank accession number MW725032). This fungus caused damping-off disease and was shown to be pathogenic. Moreover, the expression of five pathogenesis-related genes, namely PR-1 , PR-2 , PR-3 , PR-4 , and PR-5 , was quantitatively evaluated under the inoculation of tomato with P. aphanidermatum . The quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) showed that the expression levels of PR-1 , PR-2 , and PR-5 genes went up significantly at 5 days post-inoculation (dpi). The expression of the PR-1 gene also increased the variably, which reached its highest value at 20 dpi, with a reported relative expression level 6.34-fold higher than that of the control. At 15 dpi, PR-2 and PR-5 increased the most, while PR-1 , PR-3 , and PR-5 also increased noticeably at 20 dpi. On the contrary, PR-4 gene expression significantly decreased after inoculation, at all time intervals. Regarding PR-5 gene expression, the data showed a variable change in PR-5 gene expression at a different sample collection period. Still, it was highly expressed at 15 dpi and reached 3.99-fold, followed by 20 dpi, where the increasing percentage reached 3.70-fold, relative to the untreated control. The HPLC analysis indicated that the total concentration of all detected polyphenolic compounds was 3858 µg/g and 3202.2 µg/g in control and infected plant leaves, respectively. Moreover, the HPLC results concluded that Pythium infection decreased phenolic acids, such as chlorogenic and ellagic acids, which correlated with the infection–plant complex process. Based on the results, P. aphanidermatum could be a biotic stress pathogen that causes the expression of pathogen-related genes and stops the regulation of defensin phenolic compounds.

Keywords: agricultural sustainability; Pythium aphanidermatum; tomato; PR genes; damping-off; HPLC; gene expression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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