Enhanced Yield of Pepper Plants Promoted by Soil Application of Volatiles From Cell-Free Fungal Culture Filtrates Is Associated With Activation of the Beneficial Soil Microbiota

0552835 - ÚEB 2022 RIV CH eng J - Journal Article
Baroja-Fernández, E. - Almagro, G. - Sánchez-López, Á. M. - Bahaji, A. - Gámez-Arcas, S. - De Diego, N. - Doležal, Karel - Muñoz, F. J. - Climent Sanz, E. - Pozueta-Romero, J.
Enhanced Yield of Pepper Plants Promoted by Soil Application of Volatiles From Cell-Free Fungal Culture Filtrates Is Associated With Activation of the Beneficial Soil Microbiota.
Frontiers in Plant Science. Roč. 12, OCT 21 (2021), č. článku 752653. ISSN 1664-462X. E-ISSN 1664-462X
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT(CZ) EF16_019/0000827
Institutional support: RVO:61389030
Keywords : biostimulant * fruit yield * fungal phytopathogen * plant growth promoting microorganism * plant-microbe interaction * soil microbiota * volatile organic compounds
OECD category: Biochemistry and molecular biology
Impact factor: 6.627, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Open access
http://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.752653

Plants communicate with microorganisms by exchanging chemical signals throughout the phytosphere. Such interactions are important not only for plant productivity and fitness, but also for terrestrial ecosystem functioning. It is known that beneficial microorganisms emit diffusible substances including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that promote growth. Consistently, soil application of cell-free culture filtrates (CF) of beneficial soil and plant-associated microorganisms enhances plant growth and yield. However, how this treatment acts in plants and whether it alters the resident soil microbiota, are largely unknown. In this work we characterized the responses of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plants cultured under both greenhouse and open field conditions and of soil microbiota to soil application of CFs of beneficial and phytopathogenic fungi. To evaluate the contribution of VOCs occurring in the CFs to these responses, we characterized the responses of plants and of soil microbiota to application of distillates (DE) of the fungal CFs. CFs and their respective DEs contained the same potentially biogenic VOCs, and application of these extracts enhanced root growth and fruit yield, and altered the nutritional characteristics of fruits. High-throughput amplicon sequencing of bacterial 16S and fungal ITS rRNA genes of the soil microbiota revealed that the CF and DE treatments altered the microbial community compositions, and led to strong enrichment of the populations of the same beneficial bacterial and fungal taxa. Our findings show that CFs of both beneficial and phytopathogenic fungi can be used as biostimulants, and provide evidence that VOCs occurring in the fungal CFs act as mediators of the plants’ responses to soil application of fungal CFs through stimulation of the beneficial soil microbiota.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0327929