Identification of a bio-signature for barley resistance against Pyrenophora teres infection based on physiological, molecular and sensor-based phenotyping

Chandana Pandey, Dominik K. Großkinsky, Jesper Cairo Westergaard, Hans J.L. Jørgensen, Jesper Svensgaard, Svend Christensen, Alexander Schulz*, Thomas Roitsch

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Necrotic and chlorotic symptoms induced during Pyrenophora teres infection in barley leaves indicate a compatible interaction that allows the hemi-biotrophic fungus Pyrenophora teres to colonise the host. However, it is unexplored how this fungus affects the physiological responses of resistant and susceptible cultivars during infection. To assess the degree of resistance in four different cultivars, we quantified visible symptoms and fungal DNA and performed expression analyses of genes involved in plant defence and ROS scavenging. To obtain insight into the interaction between fungus and host, we determined the activity of 19 key enzymes of carbohydrate and antioxidant metabolism. The pathogen impact was also phenotyped non-invasively by sensor-based multireflectance and –fluorescence imaging. Symptoms, regulation of stress-related genes and pathogen DNA content distinguished the cultivar Guld as being resistant. Severity of net blotch symptoms was also strongly correlated with the dynamics of enzyme activities already within the first day of infection. In contrast to the resistant cultivar, the three susceptible cultivars showed a higher reflectance over seven spectral bands and higher fluorescence intensities at specific excitation wavelengths. The combination of semi high-throughput physiological and molecular analyses with non-invasive phenotyping enabled the identification of bio-signatures that discriminates the resistant from susceptible cultivars.

Original languageEnglish
Article number111072
JournalPlant Science
Volume313
Number of pages11
ISSN0168-9452
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021

Keywords

  • Bio-signatures
  • Crop resistance
  • Enzyme activity signatures
  • Expression analysis
  • Fungal DNA
  • Multispectral imaging
  • PhenoLab
  • Pre-symptomatic

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