Activation of Disease Resistance and Defense Gene Expression in Agrostis Stolonifera and Nicotiana Benthamiana by a Copper-Containing Pigment And
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Activation of disease resistance and defense gene expression in Agrostis stolonifera and Nicotiana benthamiana by a copper-containing pigment and a benzothiadiazole derivative by Brady Tavis Nash A Thesis Presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Biology Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Brady Tavis Nash, September, 2011 ABSTRACT ACTIVATION OF DISEASE RESISTANCE AND DEFENSE GENE EXPRESSION IN AGROSTIS STOLONIFERA AND NICOTIANA BENTHAMIANA BY A COPPER- CONTAINING PIGMENT AND A BENZOTHIADIAZOLE DERIVATIVE Brady Nash Advisors: University of Guelph, 2011 Professor T. Hsiang Professor P. H. Goodwin Soil application of a known activator of Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR), benzo(1,2,3)thiadiazole-7-carbothioic acid-S-methyl ester (BTH), and Harmonizer, a polychlorinated copper (II) phthalocyanine pigment, reduced severity of Colletotrichum orbiculare in Nicotiana benthamiana by 99% and 38%, respectively. BTH induced expression of nine SAR/progammed cell death-related genes and primed expression of two Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR)-related genes, while Harmonizer induced expression of only one SAR-related gene. Soil application of Harmonizer also reduced severity of Sclerotinia homoeocarpa in Agrostis stolonifera up to 39%, whereas BTH was ineffective. Next generation sequencing identified over 1000 genes in A. stolonifera with two-fold or higher increased expression following Harmonizer treatment relative to a water control, and induced expression of three defense-related genes was confirmed by relative RT-PCR. These results demonstrate that Harmonizer can activate systemic resistance in a dicot and a monocot, but changes in expression of genes indicated that it differed from BTH-activated SAR. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisors, Dr. Tom Hsiang and Dr. Paul Goodwin, for providing me with the opportunity to pursue my research interests in molecular plant pathology. I would also like to thank Dr. Annette Nassuth for serving on my advisory committee and sharing her expertise. Thank you to Dr. Ernesto Guzman and Dr. Marc Habash for taking the time to serve on my M.Sc. thesis examination. Thank you to NSERC for awarding me with an IPS-1 scholarship, and to Petro-Canada for providing me with the opportunity to work with an industry partner. Thank you to my friends and family for support and constant reminders of how long I have been attending University. To Holly, thank you for putting up with my long days and with keeping me motivated throughout my graduate studies. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES xi LIST OF APPENDICES xvii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xx Chapter 1 Literature Review 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Localized and systemic induced resistance 2 1.3 Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR) 4 1.3.1 Microbial Activators of SAR 8 1.3.2 PAMP Activators of SAR 9 1.3.3 Effector Activators of SAR 11 1.3.4 Plant Derived Activators of SAR 12 1.3.5 Synthetic Activators of SAR 12 1.3.6 Gene Expression Related to SAR 14 1.4 Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR) 17 1.4.1 Biotic Activators of ISR 22 1.4.2 PAMP Activators of ISR 23 1.4.3 Additional Activators of ISR 26 1.4.4 Gene Expression Related to ISR 28 1.5 Other types of induced disease resistance 30 1.6 Heavy metals and induced disease resistance 32 1.7 Crosstalk 33 1.8 Large Scale Gene Expression 37 1.9 Nicotiana benthamiana as a Model Plant and Host for Diseases 40 1.10 Agrostis stolonifera and its Diseases 41 1.11 Harmonizer 43 1.12 Research Goals 44 iv 1.13 Hypothesis and objectives 45 1.13.1 Hypothesis 45 1.13.2 Objectives 45 Chapter 2 Activation of disease resistance and gene expression in Nicotiana benthamiana by Harmonizer and BTH 52 2.1 Introduction 52 2.1.1 Hypothesis 56 2.1.2 Objectives 56 2.2 Materials and Methods 58 2.2.1 Biological Materials 58 2.2.2 Antimicrobial Activity Test 58 2.2.3 Plant Treatments 60 2.2.4 Inoculation and Disease Assessments 61 2.2.5 Collection of leaf samples and RNA extractions 62 2.2.6 Primer Design for Relative RT-PCR 62 2.2.7 Relative RT-PCR 64 2.2.8 Sequence Alignments and Dendrograms 65 2.3 Results 67 2.3.1 Antimicrobial activity 67 2.3.2 Screening of defense activators for disease reduction in N. benthamiana 67 2.3.3 Harmonizer as a defense activator 69 2.3.4 Primers for amplification of defense related genes 69 2.3.5 Testing primers for amplification of defense related genes 72 2.3.6 Gene expression after Harmonizer or BTH treatment 74 2.3.7 Identification of genes used for monitoring effects of BTH and Harmonizer treatment 76 2.4 Discussion 82 Chapter 3 Harmonizer activates disease resistance and gene expression in Agrostis stolonifera 144 3.1 Introduction 144 3.1.1 Hypothesis 148 3.1.2 Objectives 148 3.2 Materials and Methods 150 3.2.1 Biological Materials 150 3.2.2 Antimicrobial Activity Test 150 3.2.3 Inoculum preparation 152 3.2.4 Plant treatments for Mason jar experiments 152 3.2.5 Inoculation and Disease assessment 154 3.2.6 Field Trials 155 v 3.2.7 RNA extraction 155 3.2.8 RNA-seq Analysis 156 3.2.9 Annotation of RNA-seq nodes 157 3.2.10 Primer Design 157 3.2.11 Collection of leaf samples and extraction of RNA for relative RT-PCR 158 3.2.12 Relative RT-PCR 158 3.2.13 Sequence alignments and dendrograms 161 3.3 Results 162 3.3.1 Harmonizer as a plant growth promoter 162 3.3.2 Antimicrobial activity 162 3.3.3 Screening of defense activators for dollar spot reduction in A. stolonifera 163 3.3.4 Harmonizer as a dollar spot defense activator 165 3.3.5 Putative ISR and SAR-related gene expression after treatment with Harmonizer 166 3.3.6 RNA-seq of total RNA from A. stolonifera treated with Harmonizer 167 3.3.7 Primers for amplification of Harmonizer induced genes 168 3.3.8 NODE gene expression after treatment with Harmonizer 171 3.3.9 Identification of constitutive and Harmonizer-induced genes 173 3.4 Discussion 176 Chapter 4 General Discussion 223 REFERENCES 231 APPENDICES 267 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Biotic and abiotic activators of SAR tested in various plant species. 47 Table 1.2 Biotic and abiotic activators of ISR tested in various plant species. 48 Table 2.1 Disease resistance activator compounds applied in combination to Nicotiana benthamiana for monitoring disease levels following inoculation with Colletotrichum orbiculare. Plants at the 2nd true leaf stage were treated with 15 ml of activator solution or their respective control for soil applications, or 4 ml of activator solution or their respective control for foliar applications. Soil applications were applied directly to the soil, while foliar applications were sprayed on both adaxial and abaxial sides of the leaf until runoff. At 7 DPT, plants were coated with a fine mist of 1x106 conidia/ml of C. orbiculare. 101 Table 2.2 Primers used for the amplification of NbEF1α (control) and genes related to SAR in N. benthamiana following treatment with Harmonizer or BTH. 102 Table 2.3 Primers used for the amplification of genes related to ISR in N. benthamiana following treatment with Harmonizer or BTH. 104 Table 2.4 Effect of Harmonizer or BTH on the radial growth of two fungal pathogens of Nicotiana benthamiana. Values represent the concentration (mg/ml) at which Harmonizer or BTH inhibited radial growth of the fungi by 50% (EC50). Inhibitory concentrations were calculated based on radial growth of mycelium over the range of Harmonizer concentrations (0, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 2, 5 and 10%), or BTH concentrations (0, 0.12, 1.2 and 12 mM), with four replicates for isolate by concentration for Harmonizer, or three replicates for BTH. 105 Table 2.5 Effect of application of activators on Nicotiana benthamiana inoculated with Colletotrichum orbiculare. Plants at the 2nd true leaf stage were treated with 15 ml of activator solution or their respective control for soil method of application, or 4 ml of activator solution or their respective control for foliar method of application. Soil applications were applied directly to the soil, while foliar applications were sprayed on both adaxial and abaxial sides of the leaf until runoff. At 7 DPT, plants were coated with a fine mist of 1x106 conidia/ml of C. orbiculare. Assessment of disease was conducted at 12 DPT. 106 Table 2.6 Effect of soil application of BTH on Nicotiana benthamiana inoculated with Colletotrichum orbiculare. Plants at the 2nd true leaf stage were treated with 15 ml of 1.2 mM BTH or water (inoculated control). Solutions were applied directly to the soil, and at 7 DPT, treated plants were coated with a fine mist of 1x106 conidia/ml of C. orbiculare. Assessment of disease was conducted at 12 DPT. 108 Table 2.7 Effect of soil application of Harmonizer on Nicotiana benthamiana inoculated with Colletotrichum orbiculare. Plants at the 2nd true leaf stage were treated with 15 ml of 5% Harmonizer or water (inoculated control). Solutions were applied directly vii to the soil, and at 7 DPT, treated plants were coated with a fine mist of 1x106 conidia/ml of C. orbiculare. Assessment of disease was conducted at 12 DPT. 109 Table 2.8 Sequences used in multiple sequence alignment for design of individual primer sets for assessing SAR in Nicotiana benthamiana following treatment with BTH or Harmonizer.