Abstract

Potato is major crop ensuring food security in Europe, and blackleg disease is increasingly causing losses in yield and during storage. Recently, one blackleg pathogen, Dickeya solani has been shown to be spreading in Northern Europe that causes aggressive disease development. Currently, identification of tolerant commercial potato varieties has been unsuccessful; this is confounded by the complicated etiology of the disease and a strong environmental influence on disease development. There is currently a lack of efficient testing systems. Here, we describe a system for quantification of blackleg symptoms on shoots of sterile invitro potato plants, which saves time and space compared to greenhouse and existing field assays. We found no evidence for differences in infection between the described invitro-based screening method and existing greenhouse assays. This system facilitates efficient screening of blackleg disease response of potato plants independent of other microorganisms and variable environmental conditions. We therefore used the invitro screening method to increase understanding of plant mechanisms involved in blackleg disease development by analysing disease response of hormone- related (salicylic and jasmonic acid) transgenic potato plants. We show that both jasmonic (JA) and salicylic (SA) acid pathways regulate tolerance to blackleg disease in potato, a result unlike previous findings in Arabidopsis defence response to necrotrophic bacteria. We confirm this by showing induction of a SA marker, pathogenesis-related protein 1 (StPR1), and a JA marker, lipoxygenase (StLOX), in Dickeya solani infected invitro potato plants. We also observed that tubers of transgenic potato plants were more susceptible to soft rot compared to wild type, suggesting a role for SA and JA pathways in general tolerance to Dickeya.

Keywords

Blackleg disease; coi1; Desiree; Dickeya solani; invitro potato; mira; NahG; Pectobacterium atrosepticum; Sarpo Soft rot; StLOX; StPR1; SW93-1015

Published in

Plant Biology
2015, Volume: 17, number: 5, pages: 1030-1038
Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL

SLU Authors

• Burra, Dharani

  • Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Mühlenbock, Per

  • Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Andreasson, Erik

  • Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

SLU Plant Protection Network


Sustainable Development Goals

SDG2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture


UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.12339

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68331