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Terpenoids and Their Possible Role in Defense Against a Fungal Pathogen Alternaria tenuissima in Chrysanthemum morifolium Cultivars

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Abstract

Terpenoids are a class of structurally diverse natural products involved in various plant biological processes. Their primary function is believed to provide chemical defense against natural enemies. However, our understanding of the role of terpenoids in plant defense against fungal pathogens is very limited. Here, we analyzed the correlation between terpenoids and defense against a black spot disease-causing fungal pathogen Alternaria tenuissima in the ornamental plant Chrysanthemum morifolium. Five cultivars of C. morifolium were compared for their defense against A. tenuissima infection and ranked as resistant and susceptible based on the sizes of leaf lesion after infection. Analysis of the leaf extracts revealed a significant negative correlation between the content of terpenes 1,8-cineole, E-β-caryophyllene, β-copaene, and γ-muurolene and damaged leaf area in the cultivars. Besides, A. tenuissima infection induced the emission of terpenoid volatiles. The cultivar with a higher level of resistance and high contents of terpenoids released less volatiles upon A. tenuissima infection than the cultivars with a lower level of resistance. In conclusion, this study uncovers the complex relationship between the constitutively produced and induced terpenoids and their role in defense against the fungal pathogen A. tenuissima in C. morifolium.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31872140) and the project funded by the priority academic program development of Jiangsu higher education institutions,PAPD. Also, we are grateful to the Central Laboratory of the College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University for providing the analytical support. The authors would like to thank TopEdit (www.topeditsci.com) for linguistic assistance during preparation of this manuscript. In addition, we thank Dr. Yuehua Ma (Central laboratory of College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University) for assistance in using Intuvo 9000 GC system coupled with 7000D Triple Quadrupole mass detector.

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  1. Xi He and Yifan Jiang have contributed equally to the paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Landscaping, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Key Laboratory of Biology of Ornamental Plants in East China, National Forestry and Grassland Administration; College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Xi He, Yifan Jiang, Sumei Chen & Fadi Chen

  2. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Feng Chen

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  1. Xi He
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Contributions

XH, YJ, and FC conceived and designed the experiments; XH performed the experiments; XH and YJ analyzed the data; XH, YJ, S-MC, F-DC, and FC wrote the paper with inputs from all authors. All authors accepted the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yifan Jiang or Feng Chen.

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He, X., Jiang, Y., Chen, S. et al. Terpenoids and Their Possible Role in Defense Against a Fungal Pathogen Alternaria tenuissima in Chrysanthemum morifolium Cultivars. J Plant Growth Regul 42, 1144–1157 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-022-10619-z

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