Jasmonatfunktion & Mykorrhiza

A key feature of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis is improved phosphorus nutrition of the host plant via the mycorrhizal pathway, i.e., the fungal uptake of Pi from the soil and its release from arbuscules within root cells. Efficient transport of Pi from the fungus to plant cells is thought to require a proton gradient across the periarbuscular membrane (PAM) that separates fungal arbuscules from the host cell cytoplasm. Previous studies showed that the H+-ATPase gene HA1 is expressed specifically in arbuscule-containing root cells of Medicago truncatula. We isolated a ha1-2 mutant of M. truncatula and found it to be impaired in the development of arbuscules but not in root colonization by Rhizophagus irregularis hyphae. Artificial microRNA silencing of HA1 recapitulated this phenotype, resulting in small and truncated arbuscules. Unlike the wild type, the ha1-2 mutant failed to show a positive growth response to mycorrhizal colonization under Pi-limiting conditions. Uptake experiments confirmed that ha1-2 mutants are unable to take up phosphate via the mycorrhizal pathway. Increased pH in the apoplast of abnormal arbuscule-containing cells of the ha1-2 mutant compared with the wild type suggests that HA1 is crucial for building a proton gradient across the PAM and therefore is indispensible for the transfer of Pi from the fungus to the plant.

Bioprotective effects of mycorrhization with two different arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, Funneliformis mosseae and Rhizophagus irregularis, against Aphanomyces euteiches, the causal agent of root rot in legumes, were studied in Medicago truncatula using phenotypic and molecular markers. Previous inoculation with an AM-fungus reduced disease symptoms as well as the amount of pathogen within roots, as determined by the levels of A. euteiches rRNA or transcripts of the gene sterol C24 reductase. Inoculation with R. irregularis was as efficient as that with F. mosseae. To study whether jasmonates play a regulatory role in bioprotection of M. truncatula by the AM fungi, composite plants harboring transgenic roots were used to modulate the expression level of the gene encoding M. truncatula allene oxide cyclase 1, a key enzyme in jasmonic acid biosynthesis. Neither an increase nor a reduction in allene oxide cyclase levels resulted in altered bioprotection by the AM fungi against root infection by A. euteiches. These data suggest that jasmonates do not play a major role in the local bioprotective effect of AM fungi against the pathogen A. euteiches in M. truncatula roots.