Strawberry fatty acyl glycosides enhance disease protection, have antibiotic activity and stimulate plant growth

DI PETO, PÍA DE LOS ÁNGELES; GRELLET BOURNONVILLE, CARLOS; FILIPPONE, MARÍA PAULA; TREJO, MARÍA FERNANDA; COUTO, ALICIA SUSANA; MAMANÍ DE MARCHESE, ALICIA; DÍAZ RICCI, JUAN CARLOS; WELIN, BJÖRN; CASTAGNARO, ATILIO PEDRO

Scientific Reports

Advisory Panel

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2020 vol. 10

An increasing interest in the development of products of natural origin for crop disease and pestcontrol has emerged in the last decade. Here we introduce a new family of strawberry acyl glycosides(SAGs) formed by a trisaccharide (GalNAc-GalNAc-Glc) and a monounsaturated fatty acid of 6 to12 carbon atoms linked to the glucose unit. Application of SAGs to Arabidopsis thaliana (hereafterArabidopsis) plants triggered a transient oxidative burst, callose deposition and defense geneexpression, accompanied by increased protection against two phytopathogens, Pseudomonasviridiflava and Botrytis cinerea. SAGs-induced disease protection was also demonstrated in soybeaninfected with the causal agent of target spot, Corynespora cassiicola. SAGs were shown to exhibitimportant antimicrobial activity against a wide-range of bacterial and fungal phytopathogens, mostprobably through membrane destabilization, and the potential use of SAGs as a biofungicide forpostharvest disease protection was demonstrated on lemon fruits infected with Penicillium digitatum.Plant growth promotion by application of SAGs was shown by augmented primary root elongation,secondary roots development and increased siliques formation in Arabidopsis, whereas a significantincrement in number of seed pods was demonstrated in soybean. Stimulation of radicle developmentand the induction of an auxin-responsive reporter system (DR5::GUS) in transgenic Arabidopsis plants,suggested that SAGs-stimulated growth at least partly acts through the auxin response pathway. Theseresults indicate that strawberry fatty acid glycosides are promising candidates for the development ofenvironmental-friendly products for disease management in soybean and lemon.