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Exogenous application of melatonin improves plant resistance to virus infection
Author(s) -
Zhao L.,
Chen L.,
Gu P.,
Zhan X.,
Zhang Y.,
Hou C.,
Wu Z.,
Wu Y.F.,
Wang Q.C.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plant pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.928
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1365-3059
pISSN - 0032-0862
DOI - 10.1111/ppa.13057
Subject(s) - biology , tobacco mosaic virus , solanum , virus , nicotiana tabacum , virology , salicylic acid , plant virus , microbiology and biotechnology , horticulture , gene , biochemistry
In this study, melatonin (MEL)‐mediated plant resistance to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) was examined to study local infection in Nicotiana glutinosa and systemic infection in Solanum lycopersicum . Exogenous application of 100 µ m MEL increased anti‐virus infection activity to 37.4% in virus‐infected N. glutinosa plants. The same treatment significantly reduced relative levels of virus RNA analysed by qRT‐PCR and virus titres measured by dot‐ELISA, and increased the relative expression levels of the PR1 and PR5 genes analysed by qRT‐PCR, in virus‐infected S. lycopersicum . MEL treatment induced considerable accumulations of salicylic acid (SA) and nitric oxide (NO) but did not significantly affect production of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) in the virus‐infected S. lycopersicum plants. Transgenic nahG N. tabacum was used to determine whether MEL‐induced TMV resistance was dependent on the SA pathway. The results showed that the relative RNA level of the TMV analysed by qRT‐PCR and virus titres analysed by dot‐ELISA were not reduced by the MEL treatment in the nahG transgenic N. tabacum seedlings treated twice with 100 µ m MEL. The increased relative expression levels of PR1 and PR5 were greatly reduced when cPTIO, an NO scavenger, was included in the MEL treatment. A working model of MEL‐mediated plant resistance to TMV is proposed. MEL‐mediated plant resistance to viruses provides a new avenue to control plant viral diseases.