Defence-related metabolic changes in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings in response to infection by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici

Abstract

Stem rust caused by the pathogen Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici is a destructive fungal disease-causing major grain yield losses in wheat. Therefore, understanding the plant defence regulation and function in response to the pathogen attack is required. As such, an untargeted LC-MS-based metabolomics approach was employed as a tool to dissect and understand the biochemical responses of Koonap (resistant) and Morocco (susceptible) wheat varieties infected with two different races of P. graminis (2SA88 [TTKSF] and 2SA107 [PTKST]). Data was generated from the infected and non-infected control plants harvested at 14- and 21- days post-inoculation (dpi), with 3 biological replicates per sample under a controlled environment. Chemo-metric tools such as principal component analysis (PCA), orthogonal projection to latent structures-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to highlight the metabolic changes using LC-MS data of the methanolic extracts generated from the two wheat varieties. Molecular networking in Global Natural Product Social (GNPS) was further used to analyse biological networks between the perturbed metabolites. PCA and OPLS-DA analysis showed cluster separations between the varieties, infection races and the time-points. Distinct biochemical changes were also observed between the races and time-points. Metabolites were identified and classified using base peak intensities (BPI) and single ion extracted chromatograms from samples, and the most affected metabolites included flavonoids, carboxylic acids and alkaloids. Network analysis also showed high expression of metabolites from thiamine and glyoxylate, such as flavonoid glycosides, suggesting multi-faceted defence response strategy by understudied wheat varieties towards P. graminis pathogen infection. Overall, the study provided the insights of the biochemical changes in the expression of wheat metabolites in response to stem rust infection.

Induced responses to the wheat pathogen: Tan Spot—(Pyrenophora tritici-repentis) in wheat (Triticum aestivum) focus on changes in defence associated and sugar metabolism

“…Worldwide, ToxA-producing Ptr races are the most common (Abdullah et al, 2017 ; Ali & Francl, 2003 ; Gamba et al, 2012 ; Kokhmetova et al, 2020 ; Lamari et al, 2003 ). ToxA is a proteinaceous necrotising effector that is internalised to chloroplasts and binds to the ToxABP1 protein (Manning et al, 2007 , 2008 ) to compromise photosynthesis (Abeysekara et al, 2010 ; Effertz et al, 2002 ; Friesen & Faris, 2004 ). Some quantitative trait loci (QTL) for TS resistance have been defined and designated as Tsr ( Tan spot resistance ) loci (Anderson et al, 1999 ; Chu et al, 2008 , 2010 ; Faris & Friesen, 2005 ; Faris et al, 1996 , 2013 ; Gamba & Lamari, 1999 ; Hu et al, 2019 ; Li et al, 2011 ; Singh et al, 2008 , 2010 , 2016 ; Tadesse et al, 2006a , 2006b ).…”