A Polysaccharide Derived from a Trichosporon sp. Culture Strongly Primes Plant Resistance to Viruses

Abstract

Plant viruses cause devastating diseases in plants, yet no effective viricide is available for agricultural application. We screened cultured filtrates derived from various soil microorganisms cultured in vegetable broth that enhanced plant viral resistance. A cultured filtrate, designated F8 culture filtrate, derived from a fungus belonging to the genus Trichosporon, induced strong resistance to various viruses on different plants. Our inoculation assay found the infection rate of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)-inoculated Nicotiana benthamiana with F8 culture filtrate pretreatment may decrease to 0%, whereas salicylic acid (SA)-pretreated N. benthamiana attenuated TMV-caused symptoms but remained 100% infected. Tracking Tobacco mosaic virus tagged with green fluorescence protein in plants revealed pretreatment with F8 culture filtrate affected the initial establishment of the virus infection. From F8 culture filtrate, we identified a previously unknown polysaccharide composed of D-mannose, D-galactose, and D-glucose in the ratio 1.0:1.2:10.0 with a α-D-1,4-glucan linkage to be responsible for the induction of plant resistance against viruses through priming of SA-governed immune-responsive genes. Notably, F8 culture filtrate only triggered local defense but was much more effective than conventional SA-mediated systematic acquired resistance. Our finding revealed that microbial cultured metabolites provided a rich source for identification of potent elicitors in plant defense.