Intraspecific diversity observed in the wild tomato species Solanum chilense in initial immune responses towards a glucan elicitor

Abstract

ABSTRACTNatural plant populations are highly polymorphic and often show intraspecific quantitative, variation in resistance properties against pathogens. The activation of the underlying defence responses can depend on the perception of conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). To dissect and understand such variation, we evaluated the diversity of responses induced by laminarin (representing a general glucan elicitor of plant immune responses) in the wild tomato species Solanum chilense. We confirm considerable overlap of the plant’s global transcriptional responses to laminarin and to the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans. We further measured key components of basal defence responses such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and levels of diverse phytohormones and their derivatives upon elicitation with laminarin in 83 plants originating from nine natural populations of S. chilense from distinct geographic origin. We found high diversity in these components at basal and elicitor-induced levels. We generated generalised linear mixed models (GLMMs) with these components to explain the observed resistance phenotype against P. infestans in the plants and found that additive effects of multiple components best explain resistance at the species level. For individual components, we observed the strongest positive correlation between the resistance phenotype and ethylene (ET) production upon laminarin elicitation. The strength of this correlation differed between individual populations. Chemical inhibition of ET production in individuals from a population, in which ET production was associated with resistance, provoked more severe disease symptoms. Our findings reveal high diversity in the strength of induced defence responses within a species and in the basal levels of stress-related phytohormones. We show the involvement of multiple components with a quantitatively different contribution of individual components to resistance in geographically separated populations of S. chilense against P. infestans.