Changes of metabolites status in plant pathogen interaction

Abstract

By investigating the metabolism of plants infected by Plasmodiophora brassicae, the agent of clubroot disease, this paper shows the changes in plant metabolites depending on responses of the plant to infection. A nontargeted metabolomic approach was used to obtain metabolic �fingerprints�, which were then combined with host transcriptomic data. At late stages of infection, infected hypocotyls of Arabidopsis thaliana plants became swollen and distorted as a consequence of the development of a gall. Gall formation was associated with the increases in the abundance of free Beta-L-arabinose (L-Ara-1P), glucoronate-1 P (GlcA-1P) and galacturonate (GalA-1P). The accumulation of the amino acids glutamate, aspartate and alanine is likely related to pathogen nutrition, while the amino acid proline protects plants from osmotic and oxidative stress. The accumulation of vitamin B6 precursor and compounds associated with folate biosynthesis was accompanied with increasing host gene expression associated with synthesis of these metabolites. This may suggest that P. brassicae obtains vitamin B6 and folates as essential cofactors for cellular biological processes from the host by inducing host biosynthetic pathways. � 2017 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.