Physcomitrella patens Activates Defense Responses against the Pathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

Abstract

The moss Physcomitrella patens is a suitable model plant to analyze the activation of defense mechanisms after pathogen assault. In this study, we show that Colletotrichum gloeosporioides isolated from symptomatic citrus fruit infects P. patens and cause disease symptoms evidenced by browning and maceration of tissues. After C. gloeosporioides infection, P. patens reinforces the cell wall by the incorporation of phenolic compounds and induces the expression of a Dirigent-protein-like encoding gene that could lead to the formation of lignin-like polymers. C. gloeosporioides-inoculated protonemal cells show cytoplasmic collapse, browning of chloroplasts and modifications of the cell wall. Chloroplasts relocate in cells of infected tissues toward the initially infected C. gloeosporioides cells. P. patens also induces the expression of the defense genes PAL and CHS after fungal colonization. P. patens reporter lines harboring the auxin-inducible promoter from soybean (GmGH3) fused to β-glucuronidase revealed an auxin response in protonemal tissues, cauloids and leaves of C. gloeosporioides-infected moss tissues, indicating the activation of auxin signaling. Thus, P. patens is an interesting plant to gain insight into defense mechanisms that have evolved in primitive land plants to cope with microbial pathogens.

Isolation and Molecular Identification of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Causing Brown Spot Disease of Camellia oleifera in Hainan of China

“…Members of the genus Colletotrichum Corda cause one of the most important diseases of Camellia oleifera in China. They infect and cause anthracnose disease in at least 470 different host species and are considered the major causal agent of postharvest disease in fruits such as citrus, apple, olive, mango, banana and strawberries (Reboledo et al 2015). Disease resistance varies among different varieties of Camellia, with Camellia sasanqua having the best resistance while the common Camellia oleifera is the most susceptible.…”

Interaction between the moss Physcomitrella patens and Phytophthora: a novel pathosystem for live‐cell imaging of subcellular defence

“…More recently, Reboledo et al . () described the infection of P. patens by the hemibiotrophic pathogen, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides . These studies revealed that these pathogens cause extensive cell death of moss tissue and induce defence responses in P. patens that are similar to those activated in flowering plants (Ponce de León, ; Ponce de León & Montesano, ).…”

“…These studies revealed that these pathogens cause extensive cell death of moss tissue and induce defence responses in P. patens that are similar to those activated in flowering plants (Ponce de León, ; Ponce de León & Montesano, ). For example, inoculation with the Pythium species, B. cinerea and C. gloesporioides resulted in cell wall reinforcement and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (Oliver et al, ; Ponce de Léon et al, ; Reboledo et al ., ) and exposing P. patens tissue to the fungal elicitors chitin and chitosan lead to a rapid ROS burst, increased peroxidase activity and induction of chitinase secretion (Lehtonen et al ., ; Lehtonen et al ., ; Lehtonen et al ., ). Furthermore, levels of the hormone salicylic acid (SA) and a precursor of jasmonic acid (JA) were found to be increased upon B. cinerea infection (Ponce de Léon et al, ).…”

“…For the fungal pathogens Botrytis cinerea, Altenaria brassicicola, Altenaria alternata, Fusarium avenaceum and Fusarium oxysporum (Ponce de Léon et al, 2007;Akita et al, 2011;Bressendorff, 2012;Lehtonen et al, 2012b;Ponce de Léon et al, 2012), the bacterium Pectobacterium carotovorum (Andersson et al, 2005;Ponce de Léon et al, 2007) and three species of the oomycete genus Pythium (Oliver et al, 2009;Takikawa et al, 2015), it has been shown that they are capable to infect P. patens. More recently, Reboledo et al (2015) described the infection of P. patens by the hemibiotrophic pathogen, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. These studies revealed that these pathogens cause extensive cell death of moss tissue and induce defence responses in P. patens that are similar to those activated in flowering plants (Ponce de León, 2011;Ponce de León & Montesano, 2013).…”

“…Furthermore, levels of the hormone salicylic acid (SA) and a precursor of jasmonic acid (JA) were found to be increased upon B. cinerea infection (Ponce de Léon et al, 2012). Also, several genes encoding defence-related proteins were found to be upregulated upon pathogen attack or elicitor treatment (Oliver et al, 2009;Bressendorff, 2012;Ponce de Léon et al, 2012;Lehtonen et al, 2012a;Reboledo et al, 2015). These included genes encoding phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and chalcone synthase (CHS), both enzymes in the flavonoid pathway that produces antimicrobial compounds and is involved in SA accumulation (Huang et al, 2010;Dao et al, 2011), and a lipoxygenase (LOX) that is part of the oxylipin pathway of which JA is one of the products (Porta & Rocha-Sosa, 2002).…”