Arabidopsis thaliana as a facilitating model for the study of the plant-PGPB-drought interaction in forest crops

CHAIN, J. M.; GUDESBLAT, G.; AMODEO, G.; BAROLI, I.

Congreso; XXXIII Argentinean Meeting of Plant Physiology (RAFV21); 2021

Sociedad Argentina de Fisiología Vegetal

Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) can improve nutrient absorption and tolerance to abiotic stresses in different plants. However, the study of the interaction between forest species and microorganisms is scarce due to the difficulty of experimenting with trees. By using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana we can accelerate research times and increase the number of replicates and assays, gathering valuable information on the mechanisms of action of PGPBs. In this work, we evaluated the effect on the growth and drought tolerance of arabidopsis of two Pseudomonas strains recently characterized by our group as beneficial for the development and drought tolerance of Eucalyptus grandis. The inoculation of arabidopsis with both Pseudomonas strains reproduced the results observed in E. grandis, including an increase in leaf area and shoot biomass, as well as faster growth. It also stimulated the formation and elongation of root hairs and provided increased water stress tolerance. These effects occurred without evidence of internal colonization of the plants. We plan to evaluate whether these two bacterial strains exert their beneficial effect through the production of phytohormones (or by stimulating their production by the plant) and to use arabidopsis mutants and transgenic lines to elucidate the physiological pathways of their interaction. This translational, comparative research between A. thaliana and eucalypt interaction with these PGPB will increase our understanding of this complex ecological process.