Helping plants to help themselves in fighting tough

diseases.

Kitty
Cheung, a post-doctoral researcher in Borhan’s lab, sprays a nematode pheromone called ascr18 on a
wheat head to prime the plant’s natural defence system. Photo courtesy of Colin Kindrachuk.

Prairie research is underway to see if a natural compound released by a plant parasite could
help boost wheat’s defences against Fusarium head blight.

“This approach is about applying certain biological or chemical agents to a plant to induce
the plant’s defences by triggering the expression of its defence genes,” explains Hossein
Borhan, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Saskatoon,
who is leading the project.

“These agents are molecules or compounds that are perceived by the plant as ‘not-self.’
Basically, they mimic the exposure of the plant to the pathogen without the actual presence of
the pathogen. So, the plant responds to these molecules, which are naturally associated with
pathogens, and activates its defence system.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Priming a plant’s defences immunizes the plant before an actual pathogen attack.

“As soon as a plant is attacked by a pathogen, the plant senses the presence of the pathogen.
That triggers the plant’s defence system to start responding. To overcome this initial defence
response, the pathogen secretes (injects) into the plant tissue molecules called effectors that
act as virulence factors. Those virulence factors suppress the plant’s defence system,” Borhan
says.
“But when a priming agent is applied, we induce the plant’s defences in the absence of the
virulence factors. That gives the plant time to build up its defences and to overcome the
subsequent pathogen invasion.”

The compounds that researchers are considering as possible priming agents are ones that
activate systemic defence responses that are effective against a range of pathogens. So, rather
than just defending itself against a single pathogen species or race attacking at a specific
infection site – which is what race-specific disease resistance genes do – the whole plant is
alerted to defend itself against diverse pathogen species.

Borhan thinks this priming approach could be an additional disease management option,
especially when conventional methods, like disease resistance genes or fungicides, are not
available or don’t provide complete protection against a pathogen.

“Using crop varieties with resistance genes can be very effective, but often the resistance is
only effective against specific races of a pathogen. Also, the resistance can break down in a
rather short period because the pathogen evolves,” he explains. “Using fungicides to control
pathogens can be problematic, primarily because of the risk to human health and the
environment, and also because repeated application of fungicides will lead to the emergence
of fungicide-resistant races of pathogens.”

Cheung inoculates wheat heads with Fusarium graminearum in experiments to see if ascr18 helps the plants to fight this pathogen.
Photo courtesy of Colin Kindrachuk.
From concept to practical tool
“Priming plant defences is not a new area of research, but it has definitely gained a lot of
momentum in recent years,” Borhan notes. “The reason is that there have been significant
advances in our understanding of how plants interact and respond to pathogens and to
beneficial microbes. So, priming plant defences has now become more of a real
alternative/complementary option to conventional methods of plant protection against
pathogens.”

As researchers turn this concept into practical products for crop growers, they will need to
find answers to a wide range of questions, including many practical questions.

Borhan gives a few examples: “One research area is how to maximize the efficiency of
priming agents and at the same time reduce any costs to the plant’s overall fitness. Induction
of plant defence responses may impact the plant’s general development and yield by using up
some of the energy and nutrients that the plant requires to fully develop.

“In terms of applying the priming agents to crops, we need to find out about the stability of
the agents. This is less of an issue when they are used in controlled environments such as
greenhouses, but we need to understand the effect of the environment on the stability and
functioning of these agents. We also need to figure out cost-effective ways to apply the
agents, especially under large-scale Canadian farming practices.

“Another consideration is the formulation and production of large quantities of the agents for
commercial use.”

Help from a plant parasite

According to Borhan, various compounds have been shown to be effective as priming agents.
His project is making use of a compound released by plant-parasitic nematodes, which are
microscopic, worm-like pests.

“Nematodes produce pheromones called ascarosides, which play a role in regulating

nematode development and in communication and interaction between nematodes. Recently,
researchers have discovered that ascarosides can act as a plant defence priming/inducing
agent,” he explains.

“Since first reported in 2015, additional studies have shown that an ascaroside called ascr18
is effective as a priming agent in several crops like wheat, soybean, tomato and corn. And it
is effective against a range of pathogens like viruses, fungi, bacteria, nematodes and
oomycetes (which are fungi-like organisms). These initial findings warrant further research
toward the application of ascr18 to boost the defence of Canadian crops against their major
pathogens.”

Borhan’s project is currently investigating the use of ascr18 as a priming agent to help wheat
plants defend themselves against Fusarium head blight. He will also be testing ascr18 to help
pulse crops fight important diseases.

“Fusarium head blight is a serious concern for Canadian crop growers, and one of the most
challenging diseases to control. Neither disease resistance genes nor fungicides are
completely effective against this disease. So, I wondered whether priming a wheat plant’s
defences could be a solution to this challenging disease,” he says.

“Based on published data and discussion with the team who discovered ascr18 at the Boyce
Thompson Institute in the U.S., I was curious to test ascr18 as a priming agent that could
potentially help to minimize the damage due to Fusarium head blight.”
Borhan and his research group are just in the first year of this project, which is funded by
Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Development Fund, the Western Grains Research Foundation
and the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission

At the moment, they are working on the dosage of ascr18 and evaluating foliar, seed and in-
furrow application methods.

“Priming plant defences has seen many advances and promising results in the last few years. I
think it has the potential to be a viable alternative approach to managing crop diseases,”
Borhan says. “I’m hoping to play a small part in this exciting and important research area.”

Advertisement
STORIES CONTINUE BELOW