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Extracts of Saccharina latissima and Ulva lactuca affect the balance between growth and immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that seaweed extracts can protect plants against microbial disease by upregulating the host’s immune system. However, if this upregulation comes at a cost to host vegetative and reproductive growth it will make the use of seaweed extracts in crop disease protection less attractive. In a series of experiments, using Arabidopsis thaliana infected by white rust (Albugo sp.) and treated with crude extracts of Ulva lactuca and Saccharina latissima, we test the hypothesis that a growth-immunity trade-off exists. We include temporal samples of the two seaweed species because the composition of bioactive molecules in them is known to vary over the year. Our results confirm that extracts of both species have the potential to protect against disease, but that both the timing of seaweed sampling and extraction procedures can introduce considerable variation to this effect. Importantly, these seaweed treatments were also associated with reduced host vegetative mass, though treatment with S. latissima could compensate for this as it also stimulated increased seed mass. We conclude that the effects of crude seaweed extracts from U. lactuca and S. latissima on plant fitness are not immediately predictable, and benefits in terms of disease protection may come with costs.

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Acknowledgements

Aarhus University Research Foundation provided financial support through a synergy grant to the project ‘From Seaweed waste to bio-stimulant’. We thank project participants Karen Koefoed Petersen, Annette Bruhn, Michael Bo Rasmussen, Benita Hyldgaard and Marianne Glasius for discussions of experimental design and results. We thank David Richardson for help on language and presentation.

Funding

Support from a synergy grant from Aarhus University Research Foundation.

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  1. Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    A. Jensen & T. H. Jorgensen

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  1. A. Jensen
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  2. T. H. Jorgensen
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AJ collected the data. Both authors contributed to design, analyses and dissemination.

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Correspondence to T. H. Jorgensen.

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Jensen, A., Jorgensen, T.H. Extracts of Saccharina latissima and Ulva lactuca affect the balance between growth and immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana. J Appl Phycol 34, 2201–2209 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-022-02761-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-022-02761-8

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