Mycorrhiza regulates signal substance levels and pathogen defense gene expression to resist citrus canker

Abstract

Citrus canker is a quarantined disease, severely harming citrus plants. Soil beneficial arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can provide a biological control pathway to resist pathogens. This work was to test changes of signal substances including hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), nitric oxide (NO), calmodulin (CaM), salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) and the pathogen defense gene expression in roots of AMF (Paraglomus occultum) and non-AMF trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata) seedlings after infected by a expressions citrus canker pathogen (Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. Citri, Xac). AMF inoculation significantly improved plant height, stem diameter and leaf number. Xac infection dramatically decreased root H2O2, NO, and SA levels, but increased root CaM and JA concentrations in non-AMF seedlings. There were higher H2O2 and CaM levels and lower JA levels in Xac-infected seedlings than in non-Xac-infected seedlings under mycorrhization. Under non-Xac infection, mycorrhizal treatment reduced root H2O2, NO, and SA but increased CaM and JA levels. However, under Xac infection, mycorrhizal inoculation distinctly accelerated root H2O2, NO, CaM, and SA accumulation, accompanied with up-regulated expression levels of root PtEPS1 (enhance pseudomonas susceptibility 1) and PtPR4 (pathogenesis related gene 4), indicating that Xac stimulated mycorrhizal roles in enhancing resistance of citrus canker. Such results imply that citrus plants with preinoculated AMF had stronger resistance to Xac infection through increasing signal substrate accumulation and pathogen defense gene expressions.