Comparative omics analysis of endophyte-infected and endophyte-free
Achnatherum sibiricum in response to pathogenic fungi
Abstract
Epichloë endophytes can improve the resistance of host grasses to
pathogenic fungi in grasslands. However, little is known about the
mechanisms involved. We investigated the mechanisms underlying the
effect of Epichloë sibirica on the resistance of
Achnatherum sibiricum to Curvularia lunata by metabolomics
approaches. The results demonstrated that before and after pathogen
inoculation, 58 and 157 differential metabolites (DMs) were respectively
induced by endophytes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG)
analyses of DMs showed that amino acids and phenols were mostly
accumulated by endophytic infection. Integrated transcriptome and
metabolomics KEGG analysis revealed that plant hormone signal
transduction was significantly enriched. After measurement, we found
that endophytic infection increased jasmonic acid (JA) concentration
before pathogen inoculation and increased ethylene (ET) and pipecolic
acid concentration after pathogen inoculation. Exogenous phytohormones
treatment verified that endophytes improved the disease resistance of
A. sibiricum by promoting JA and ET accumulation. In
phenylpropanoid synthetic pathway, the endophytes promoted the
accumulation of ferulic acid, p-coumaroylagmatine, and
feruloylputrescine which was related to resistance against plant
disease. Overall, our research suggests that Epichloë endophytes
presumably trigger induced systemic resistance of the hosts to
pathogenic fungi via activating JA/ET signaling pathways and promoted
antimicrobial phenol accumulation in hosts.