Transcriptional responses and secondary metabolites variation of tomato plant in response to tobacco mosaic virus infestation

Abstract

The present study focused on the impact of infection with the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Specifically, changes in phytochemicals and gene activity related to pathogenesis-related and phenylpropanoid pathway genes in tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L.) during a period of 2–14 days post-inoculation (dpi). According to TEM investigation and coat protein sequence analysis, the purified TMV Egyptian AM isolate (PP133743) has a rod-shaped structure with a diameter of around 110 nm. The RT-qPCR analysis revealed that PR-1 showed an initial increase after TMV infection, as seen in the time-course analysis. In contrast, PR-2 was consistently elevated throughout the infection, suggesting a stronger reaction to the virus and suppressing PAL expression at 6 to 14 dpi. The expression levels of HQT and CHS transcripts exhibited alternating patterns of up-regulation and down-regulation at different time intervals. The HPLC and GC–MS analysis of control- and TMV-infected tomato extracts revealed that different phenolic, flavonoid, and fatty acid compounds were increased (such as naringenin, rutin, flavone, ferulic acid, and pyrogallol) or significantly decreased (such as salicylic acid and chlorogenic acid) after TMV infection. The ability of TMV to inhibit most polyphenolic compounds could potentially accelerate the viral life cycle. Consequently, focusing on enhancing the levels of such suppressed compounds may be critical for developing plant viral infection management strategies.