Enhancing crop resilience to combined abiotic and biotic stress through the dissection of physiological and molecular crosstalk

Plants growing in their natural habitats are often challenged simultaneously by multiple stress factors, both abiotic and biotic. Research has so far been limited to responses to individual stresses, and understanding of adaptation to combinatorial stress is limited, but indicative of non-additive interactions. Omics data analysis and functional characterization of individual genes has revealed a convergence of signaling pathways for abiotic and biotic stress adaptation. Taking into account that most data originate from imposition of individual stress factors, this review summarizes these findings in a physiological context, following the pathogenesis timeline and highlighting potential differential interactions occurring between abiotic and biotic stress signaling across the different cellular compartments and at the whole plant level. Potential effects of abiotic stress on resistance components such as extracellular receptor proteins, R-genes and systemic acquired resistance will be elaborated, as well as crosstalk at the levels of hormone, reactive oxygen species, and redox signaling. Breeding targets and strategies are proposed focusing on either manipulation and deployment of individual common regulators such as transcription factors or pyramiding of non- (negatively) interacting components such as R-genes with abiotic stress resistance genes. We propose that dissection of broad spectrum stress tolerance conferred by priming chemicals may provide an insight on stress cross regulation and additional candidate genes for improving crop performance under combined stress. Validation of the proposed strategies in lab and field experiments is a first step toward the goal of achieving tolerance to combinatorial stress in crops

Combined biotic and abiotic stress resistance in tomato

Abiotic and biotic stress factors are the major constrains for the realization of crop yield potential. As climate change progresses, the spread and intensity of abiotic as well as biotic stressors is expected to increase, with increased probability of crops being exposed to both types of stress. Shielding crops from combinatorial stress requires a better understanding of the plant’s response and its genetic architecture. In this study, we evaluated resistance to salt stress, powdery mildew and to both stresses combined in tomato, using the Solanum habrochaites LYC4 introgression line (IL) population. The IL population segregated for both salt stress tolerance and powdery mildew resistance. Using SNP array marker data, QTLs were identified for salt tolerance as well as Na+ and Cl- accumulation. Salt stress increased the susceptibility of the population to powdery mildew in an additive manner. Phenotypic variation for disease resistance was reduced under combined stress as indicated by the coefficient of variation. No correlation was found between disease resistance and Na+ and Cl- accumulation under combined stress Most genetic loci were specific for either salt stress tolerance or powdery mildew resistance. These findings increase our understanding of the genetic regulation of responses to abiotic and biotic stress combinations and can provide leads to more efficiently breeding tomatoes and other crops with a high level of disease resistance while maintaining their performance in combination with abiotic stress

Genetics and regulation of combined abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in tomato

Projections on the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity foresee prolonged and/or increased stress intensities and enlargement of a significant number of pathogens habitats. This significantly raises the occurrence probability of (new) abiotic and biotic stress combinations. With stress tolerance research being mostly focused on responses to individual stresses, our understanding of plants’ ability to adapt to combined stresses is limited. In an attempt to bridge this knowledge gap, we hierarchized in chapter 1 existing information on individual abiotic or biotic stress adaptation mechanisms taking into consideration different anatomical, physiological and molecular layers of plant stress tolerance and defense. We identified potentially crucial regulatory intersections between abiotic and biotic stress signalling pathways following the pathogenesis timeline, and emphasized the importance of subcellular to whole plant level interactions by successfully dissecting the phenotypic response to combined stress. We considered both explicit and shared adaptive responses to abiotic and biotic stress, which included amongst others R-gene and systemic acquired resistance as well as reactive oxygen species (ROS), redox and hormone signalling, and proposed breeding targets and strategies. In chapter 3 we focused on salt stress and powdery mildew combination in tomato, a vegetable crop with a wealth of genetic resources, and started with a genetic study. S. habrochaites LYC4 was found to exhibit resistance to both salt stress and powdery mildew. A LYC4 introgression line (IL) population segregated for both salt stress tolerance and powdery mildew resistance. Introgressions contributing to salt tolerance, including Na+ and Cl- accumulation, and powdery mildew resistance were precisely pinpointed with the aid of SNP marker genotyping. Salt stress (100mM NaCl) combined with powdery mildew infection increased the susceptibility of the population to powdery mildew in an additive manner, while decreasing the phenotypic variation for this trait. Only a few overlapping QTLs for disease resistance and salt stress tolerance were identified (one on a short region at the top of Chromosome 9 where numerous receptor-like kinases reside). Most genetic loci were specific for either salt stress tolerance or powdery mildew resistance indicating distinct genetic architectures. This enables genetic pyramiding approaches to build up combined stress tolerance. Considering that abiotic stress in nature can be of variable intensities, we evaluated selected ILs under combined stress with salinity ranging from mild to severe (50, 100 and 150mM NaCl) in chapter 4. Mild salt stress (50mM) increased powdery mildew susceptibility and was accompanied by accelerated cell death-like senescence. On the contrary, severe salt stress (150mM) reduced the disease symptoms and this correlated with leaf Na+ and Cl- content in the leaves. The effects of salt stress on powdery mildew resistance may be dependent on resistance type and mechanisms. Near Isogenic Lines (NILs) that carry different PM resistance genes (Ol-1 (associated with slow hypersensitivity response, HR), ol-2 (an mlo mutant associated with papilla formation) and Ol-4 (an R gene associated with fast HR) indeed exhibited differential responses to combined stress. NIL-Ol-1 resembled the LYC4 ILs response, while NIL-ol-2 and NIL-Ol-4 maintained robust resistance and exhibited no senescence symptoms across all combinations, despite the observed reduction in callose deposition in NIL-ol-2. Increased susceptibility, senescence and fitness cost of NIL-Ol-1 under combined stress coincided with high induction of ethylene and jasmonate biosynthesis and response pathways, highly induced expression of cell wall invertase LsLIN6, and a reduction in the expression of genes encoding for antioxidant enzymes. These observations underlined the significance of stress intensity and mechanism of resistance to the outcome of salt stress and powdery mildew combination, underscoring the involvement of ethylene signalling to the susceptibility response under combined stress. To examine the significance of hormone signalling in combined stress responses we evaluated crosses of tomato hormone mutants notabilis (ABA-deficient), defenseless1 (JA-deficient) and epinastic (ET overproducer) with NIL-Ol-1, NIL-ol-2 and NIL-Ol-4 in chapter 5. The highly pleiotropic epinastic mutant increased susceptibility of NIL-Ol-1, but decreased the senescence response under combined stress, and resulted in partial breakdown of NIL-ol-2 resistance, accompanied by reduced callose deposition. The effects of ET overproduction on susceptibility were more pronounced under combined stress. ABA deficiency in notabilis on the other hand greatly reduced susceptibility of NIL-Ol-1under combined stress at the expense of stronger growth reduction, and induced ROS overproduction. Partial resistance breakdown in the ol-2xnotabilis mutant accompanied by reduced callose deposition was observed, and this was restored under combined stress. Jasmonic acid deficiency phenotypic effects in defenseless mutants were subtle with modest increase in susceptibility for NIL-Ol-1 and NIL-ol-2. For NIL-ol-2 this increased susceptibility was reverted under combined stress. NIL-Ol-4 resistance remained robust across all mutant and treatment combinations. These results highlight the catalytic role of ET and ABA signalling on susceptibility and senescence under combined stress, accentuating concomitantly the importance of signalling fine tuning to minimize pleiotropic effects. The potential of exploiting transcription factors to enhance tolerance to multiple stress factors and their combination was investigated in chapter 6 through the identification and functional characterization of tomato homologues of AtWRKYs 11, 29, 48, 70 and 72. Thirteen tomato WRKY homologues were identified, of which 9 were overexpressed (using transformation with A. tumefaciens) and 12 stably silenced via RNAi in tomato cultivar Money Maker (MM). SlWRKY11-OE and SlWRKY23-OE overexpressors and RNAi lines of SlWRKY7 and SlWRKY9 showed both increased biomass and relative salt tolerance. SlWRKY6-OE exhibited the highest relative salt stress tolerance, but had strongly decreased growth under control conditions. Exceptional phenotypes under control conditions were observed for SlWRKY10-OE (stunted growth) and SlWRKY23-RNAi (necrotic symptoms). These phenotypes were significantly restored under salt stress, and accompanied by decreased ROS production. Both lines exhibited increased resistance to powdery mildew, but this resistance was compromised under salt stress combination, indicating that these genes have important functions at the intersection of abiotic and biotic stress adaptation. SlWRKY23 appears to have a key regulatory role in the control of abiotic stress/defense and cell death control. Experimental observations are critically discussed in the General Discussion with emphasis on potential distinctive responses in different pathosystems and abiotic and biotic stress resistance mechanisms as well as genetic manipulations for effectively achieving combined stress tolerance. This includes deployment of individual common regulators as well as pyramiding of non-(negatively) interacting components such as R-genes with abiotic stress resistance genes, and their translation potential for other abiotic and biotic stress combinations. Understanding and improving plant tolerance to stress combinations can greatly contribute to accelerating crop improvement towards sustained or even increased productivity under stress. </p

Supplementary data: Responses to combined abiotic and biotic stress in tomato are governed by stress intensity and mechanism of resistance

Stress conditions in agricultural ecosystems can occur in variable intensities. Different resistance mechanisms to abiotic stress and pathogens are deployed by plants. Thus, it is important to examine plant responses to stress combinations under different scenarios. Here, we evaluated the effect of different levels of salt stress ranging from mild to severe (50, 100 and 150mM NaCl) on powdery mildew (PM) resistance and overall performance of tomato introgression lines with contrasting levels of partial resistance, as well as isogenic lines carrying the PM resistance genes Ol-1 (associated with slow Hypersensitivity Response; HR), ol-2 (a mlo mutant associated with papilla formation) and Ol-4 (a R gene associated with fast HR). PM resistance was affected by salt stress in a genotype and stress intensity dependent manner. In susceptible and partial resistant lines, increased susceptibility was observed under mild salt stress (50mM) which was accompanied with accelerated cell death-like senescence. On the contrary, severe salt stress (150mM) reduced disease symptoms. Na+ and Cl- accumulation in the leaves was linearly related to the decreased pathogen growth under severe stress, suggesting a more direct role for the salt in suppressing PM growth. In contrast, complete resistance mediated by ol-2 and Ol-4 was unaffected under all treatment combinations, and was associated with a decreased growth penalty. Increased susceptibility and senescence under combined stress of the variety Moneymaker (MM) and the NIL Ol-1 was associated with the induction of ethylene and jasmonic acid pathway genes as well as of the cell wall invertase gene LIN6. These results highlight the significance of stress severity and resistance type on the plant’s performance under abiotic and biotic stress combination

Supplementary data: Hormone signalling regulation of tomato response to combined biotic and abiotic stress

Plant hormones are paramount to plant adaptation to changing environmental conditions and interactions with microorganisms. There is currently limited knowledge on their significance in the response to stress combination. Using near isogenic lines (NILs) that carry the Ol-1, ol-2 and Ol-4 gene for resistance to tomato powdery mildew caused by Oidium neolycopersici, this study focused on the responses of these NILs to powdery mildew and salt stress combination. In these NILs, marker genes for monitoring hormonal pathways showed differential expression pattern upon powdery mildew infection. Further by crossing these NILs with tomato mutants notabilis (ABA-deficient), defenseless1 (JA-deficient) and epinastic (ET overproducer) the cross-talk among hormonal pathways was further investigated. Among the mutants, epinastic resulted in increased susceptibility of NIL-Ol-1 and breakdown of NIL-ol-2 resistance, accompanied by reduced callose deposition, effects that were more pronounced under combination with salt stress. On the other hand notabilis, resulting in H2O2 overproduction greatly reduced susceptibility of NIL-Ol-1 under combined stress accompanied however by heightened sensitivity to salt stress. Callose deposition reduction led to partial resistance breakdown in NIL-ol-2 which was reversed under combined stress. NIL-Ol-4 resistance remained robust across all mutant and treatment combinations. We discuss the critical role that hormone signalling appears to have for the outcome of combined stress and powdery mildew in terms of resistance and plant fitness integrating observations from physiological, histochemical and gene expression analyses. These significant insights obtained extend our understanding of hormonal regulation of combined stress responses and can aid in narrowing down targets for improving crop performance under stress combinations

Supplementary data: Roles and contribution of tomato WRKY genes to salt stress and powdery mildew resistance

WRKY is a transcription factor family unique to plants with diverse functions in defense pathways, abiotic stress tolerance and developmental programs. Family members are characterized by the conserved WRKY domain and significant sequence variation in the remainder of the protein, which is translated into distinct functions even for closely related genes. We utilized the extensive functional characterization of the Arabidopsis thaliana WRKY family to identify tomato homologues of Arabidopsis WRKY genes that are involved in defense responses (AtWRKY 11, 29, 48, 70 and 72). In total 13 tomato WRKY homologues were identified for these genes, of which 9 were successfully over-expressed, and 12 stably silenced via RNAi in transgenic tomato lines. The transgenic lines were evaluated for their response to salt stress, powdery mildew resistance and the combination of these stresses. Lines overexpressing SlWRKY11 and SlWRKY23, and RNAi lines of SlWRKY7 and SlWRKY9 showed both increased biomass and improved salt tolerance. For SlWRKY11 and SlWRKY23 overexpression (OE) lines, this was accompanied by a moderate increase in oxidative stress tolerance. The SlWRKY6-OE line showed strongly improved salt stress tolerance, but a growth penalty under control conditions. Exceptional phenotypes were observed for the SlWRKY10-OE line (stunted growth) and the RNAi line SlWRKY23-RNAi (necrotic symptoms), but these phenotypes were partly restored to normal under salt stress. Both these lines exhibited increased resistance to powdery mildew, but this was compromised when the plants were put under salt-stress as well. Important functions for tomato WRKY genes were revealed in both the abiotic and biotic stress response and several genes should be further explored to elucidate their downstream regulatory functions that lead to increased stress tolerance