Wild and cultivated potatoes produce different defenses.
Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight, yearly leads to significant economic damage due to high losses in the potato crop. In contrast to susceptible cultivated potatoes, wild potatoes often show a pronounced resistance to Phytophthora. IPB scientists have now performed a comprehensive metabolite profiling of a wild and a cultivated potato species to assess the differences in their defense compound production. For this purpose, they focused on the first contact site between host and pathogen: the leaf surface.
Here, they found large amounts of potato-typical phytoalexins, like hydroxycinnamic acid amides when examining cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum). On the leaf surface of wild potato (Solanum bulbocastanum), however, the Halle plant experts did not detect any hydroxycinnamic acid amides, but a previously unknown substance, which they described as LPC17:1, a lysophosphatidylcholine carrying a monounsaturated fatty acid with a chain length of 17. LPC17:1 proved to be a potent defense agent in vitro. It inhibited both spore germination and mycelial growth of Phytophthora infestans. The accumulation of LPC17:1 on the leaf surface could be part of the very early defense response of wild potatoes, the scientists concluded.
Original Publication:
Karin Gorzolka, Elvio Henrique Benatto Perino, Sarah Lederer, Ulrike Smolka & Sabine Rosahl. Lysophosphatidylcholine 17:1 from the leaf surface of the wild potato species Solanum bulbocastanum inhibits Phytophthora infestans. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2021, 69, 5607–5617 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.0c07199