Role of Tocochromanols in Tolerance of Cereals to Biotic Stresses: Specific Focus on Pathogenic and Toxigenic Fungal Species

Abstract

Fungal pathogens capable of producing mycotoxins are one of the main threats to the cultivation of cereals and the safety of the harvested kernels. Improving the resistance of crops to fungal disease and accumulation of mycotoxins is therefore a crucial issue. Achieving this goal requires a deep understanding of plant defense mechanisms, most of them involving specialized metabolites. However, while numerous studies have addressed the contribution of phenylpropanoids and carotenoids to plant chemical defense, very few have dealt with tocochromanols. Tocochromanols, which encompass tocopherols and tocotrienols and constitute the vitamin E family, are widely distributed in cereal kernels; their biosynthetic pathway has been extensively studied with the aim to enrich plant oils and combat vitamin E deficiency in humans. Here we provide strong assumptions arguing in favor of an involvement of tocochromanols in plant–fungal pathogen interactions. These assumptions are based on both direct effects resulting from their capacity to scavenge reactive oxygen species, including lipid peroxyl radicals, on their potential to inhibit fungal growth and mycotoxin yield, and on more indirect effects mainly based on their role in plant protection against abiotic stresses.

Editorial: Identification and characterization of contrasting genotypes/cultivars to discover novel players in crop responses to abiotic/biotic stresses, volume II

“…Biotic stresses are crucial constraints to the productivity of crop plants, especially under climate change conditions (Parihar et al, 2022), and lead to more than 20% crop yield losses (Savignac et al, 2022). Galewski et al identified specific genomic features associated with seedling rhizoctonia resistance by whole genome sequencing of selected and unselected bulk derived from a synthetic outcrossing sugar beet population and the genome-wide variation resulting from the selection.…”

“…Biotic stresses are crucial constraints to the productivity of crop plants, especially under climate change conditions ( Parihar et al., 2022 ), and lead to more than 20% crop yield losses ( Savignac et al., 2022 ). Galewski et al.…”

Antagonistic properties against Fusarium sporotrichioides and glycosylation of HT-2 and T-2 toxins by selected Trichoderma strains

“…These problems are not only related to the severity of weather events during the growing season of cereal plants and may also affect the increased occurrence of plant pathogen infections during flowering 2 . In this context, protecting cereal plants from pathogenic fungi and insects (often vectors in the spread of fungal diseases) takes on particular importance 3 . The current global trend assumes reducing the use of chemical pesticides towards sustainable agriculture development and food security assurance.…”