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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Pathogen Interactions
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1475416
This article is part of the Research Topic Advancing Sustainable Management of Fungal Diseases in Berry Crops View all 6 articles

Investigating the action model of the resistance enhancement induced by bacterial volatile organic compounds against Botrytis cinerea in tomato fruit

Provisionally accepted
Jianhua Chen Jianhua Chen Kexin Cao Kexin Cao Xuan Lu Xuan Lu Ding Huang Ding Huang Ruhong Ming Ruhong Ming Rumei Lu Rumei Lu Rongshao Huang Rongshao Huang Li Liangbo Li Liangbo *
  • Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Inducing natural resistance against pathogen infection in postharvest tomatoes is a sustainable strategy for reducing postharvest losses. This study aimed to determine the the action model of the resistance enhancement induced by bacterial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) against Botrytis cinerea. The results showed that the application of VOCs inhibited the damage to tomato fruits caused by B. cinerea. VOCs treatment had remarkable beneficial effects on the activities of the main defence-related enzymes, including chitinases, glucanases, peroxidases, ascorbate peroxidases, polyphenol oxidases, and phenylalanine ammonia-lyases. The expression of response genes involved in salicylic acid and jasmonic acid biosynthesis and signalling pathways was enhanced upon VOCs treatment. Metabolomics data demonstrated that VOC treatment triggered the accumulation of phenolic acids, including substrates in phenolic acid biosynthesis pathways, hydroxycinnamic acid, hydroxybenzoic acid, and their derivatives. Transcriptomics analysis and qRT-PCR verification revealed that VOCs treatment significantly upregulates the expression of core genes related to phenolic acid biosynthesis, specifically in shikimate pathway (SlDAHPS, SlSDH, SlCS, and SlADT3) and phenylalanine metabolic pathway (SlPAL, Sl4CL, SlBAHD1, SlCYP98A2 and SlCAP84A1). Taken together, our findings suggest that VOCs enhanced tomato fruit postharvest resistance against B. cinerea by regulating defence enzyme activity, SA/JA signalling, and phenolic acid biosynthesis pathway. This study provides new insights into the mechanisms by which VOCs fumigation manages postharvest grey mould in tomatoes.

    Keywords: MVOCs Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), Tomato, Grey mould, phenolic acids, Disease Resistance

    Received: 03 Aug 2024; Accepted: 05 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chen, Cao, Lu, Huang, Ming, Lu, Huang and Liangbo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Li Liangbo, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.