INTERFERENCE BY NON-HOST PLANT ROOTS AND ROOT EXUDATES IN THE INFECTION PROCESSES OF PHYTOPHTHORA NICOTIANAE

Highlights

• The roots of non-host plant interfere infection of Phytophthora nicotianae.

• Vanillin and other compounds play key roles in antimicrobial activity of fennel roots.

• ROS accumulation is the potentially mechanism involved in inhibition of antimicrobial compounds on P. nicotianae.

Abstract

Crop rotations are widely used because they can significantly reduce the incidence of pests and diseases. The interactions between non-host roots and pathogens may be key in the inhibition of soilborne pathogens in crop rotations. Interactions between fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) roots/root exudates and Phytophthora nicotianae were investigated because of the known allelopathy between fennel and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). The effects of the key compounds in the fennel rhizosphere on the mycelial growth and zoospore behavior of P. nicotianae were assessed. The roots of fennel attracted P. nicotianae zoospores and inhibited their motility and the germination of cystospores, with some cystospores rupturing. 4-ethylacetophenone, vanillin and N-formylpiperidine were consistently identified in the fennel rhizosphere and were found to interfere with the infection of P. nicotianae, especially vanillin. Hyphae treated with these compounds produced more abnormal branches and accumulated reactive oxygen species. These interspecific interactions between non-host roots and pathogens were found to be an important factor in the inhibition by fennel of infection by P. nicotianae.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

fennel and tobacco rotation / infection behavior / Phytophthora nicotianae / reactive oxygen species / vanillin

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Supplementary materials

The online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021399 contains supplementary material (Fig. S1).

Acknowledgements

We thank the State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources in Yunnan for providing the testing platform. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972328, 31601682), the Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province (2018FG001-046), the Major Program in Yunnan Province (202002AE320012-02-03), the key Yunnan provincial programs of Yunnan Eco-Friendly Food International Cooperation Research Center (2019ZG00901-03), the Yunnan Academician Workstation of Chinese Academy of Engineering (2018IC063), and the Program for Innovative Research Team in Science and Technology in University of Yunnan Province.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Yuxin Yang, He Zhang, Yuting Fang, Ying Li, Xinyue Mei, Huichuan Huang, Fei Du, Shusheng Zhu, Min Yang, and Yixiang Liu declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2021. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)