Endophytic microorganisms associated with reversion of silverleaf disease symptoms in apple

Daina Grinbergs; Javier Chilian; Natalia Padilla; Marisol Reyes; Andrés France; Macarena Gerding; Ernesto Moya-Elizondo

Keywords: biological control, microbiome, trunk diseases, Chondrostereum purpureum, reversion of silverleaf symptoms, apple endophytes, biological control agents, endophytic interactions, fungal pathogens, plant immune responses

Abstract

Silverleaf is caused by the fungus Chondrostereum purpureum, which produces wood necrosis and foliar silvering in woody plants. Field observations and studies in apple have shown the reversion of foliar symptoms. Since plants were clones and received identical agronomical management, it was hypothesized that reversion is driven by endophytic microbiota. Thus, the objectives of this study were to compare healthy, diseased and reverted plants with respect to their physiology, endophytic microbial communities, antagonistic ability of their endophytes against C. purpureum and defense-genes-expression. Water-potential, stomatal-conductance, chlorophyll-content and fluorescence were measured. Endophytic bacterial and fungal DNA were analyzed by DGGE, and communities richness and similarity were calculated. Wood cores were collected and bacterial and fungal endophytes were isolated and confronted with C. purpureum virulent strains in dual-culture assays. Defense-genes-expression were measured by qPCR. Results indicated that there were no differences in physiological parameters between healthy and reverted plants, except for fluorescence, and both type of plants differed from diseased ones. Bacterial and fungal communities richness were similar in healthy and reverted plants, and higher than in diseased ones. Endophytes from reverted and healthy plants showed high antagonism to C. purpureum. Furthermore, NPR1-gene-expression was upregulated in reverted plants while PAL and PGIP showed higher values in diseased plants. Overall, physiological, molecular and microbial characteristics were similar between healthy and reverted plants, and both differed from diseased ones. Therefore, reversion of symptoms is associated with changes in the endophytic microbiota, which seems to be a promising source of biological control agents against C. purpureum.

Más información

Título de la Revista: PHYTOPATHOLOGY
Volumen: 119
Editorial: AMER PHYTOPATHOLOGICAL SOC
Fecha de publicación: 2021
Página de inicio: 1541
Página final: 1550
Idioma: Ingles
URL: https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-12-20-0548-R