Cuticular waxes are mixtures of hydrophobic compounds covering land plant surfaces and play key roles in plant resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. However, it is still not clear whether the epicuticular wax could protect the plants from infection by anthracnose, one of the most important plant diseases worldwide, which seriously infects sorghum and causes great yield loss. In this study, Sorghum bicolor L., an important C4 crop with high wax coverage, was selected to analyze the relationship between epicuticular wax (EW) and anthracnose resistance. In vitro analysis indicated that the sorghum leaf wax significantly inhibited the anthracnose mycelium growth of anthracnose on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium, with the plaque diameter smaller than that grown on medium without wax. Then, the EWs were removed from the intact leaf with gum acacia, followed by the inoculation of Colletotrichum sublineola. The results indicated that the disease lesion was remarkably aggravated on leaves without EW, which showed decreased net photosynthetic rate and increased intercellular CO2 concentrations and malonaldehyde content three days after inoculation. Transcriptome analysis further indicated that 1546 and 2843 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were regulated by C. sublineola infection in plants with and without EW, respectively. Among the DEG encoded proteins and enriched pathways regulated by anthracnose infection, the cascade of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) signaling pathway, ABC transporters, sulfur metabolism, benzoxazinoid biosynthesis, and photosynthesis were mainly regulated in plants without EW. Overall, the EW increases plant resistance to C. sublineola by affecting physiological and transcriptome responses through sorghum epicuticular wax, improving our understanding of its roles in defending plants from fungi and ultimately benefiting sorghum resistance breeding.
A light wavelength affects both plant photomorphogenesis and stress resistance. In this study, the phenotypic plasticity (growth parameters and cuticular waxes) and physiological adaptation (photosynthetic properties and antioxidant enzyme activities) of faba bean subjected to specific LED lights, red, yellow, blue, violet, and white, were analyzed under two water conditions (normal and drought). The plants grown under red and yellow lights possessed the smaller leaf size and the higher leaf relative water content. The blue light had a positive effect on improving stomatal conductance and net photosynthetic rate of faba bean leaves, and the plants grown under the blue light also had higher antioxidant enzyme activities. The blue light also changed the dominant wax component to alkanes and significantly decreased a total wax load under the drought stress, and thus minimized the cuticle transpiration (water loss). The decreased wax deposition and the increase of C31-C33 alkanes abundance in plants grown under the yellow light also resulted in a lower leaf water loss under the drought stress. The red light increased but the violet light did not change the cuticle water loss. These results suggest that plant drought tolerance could be improved by supplementing the blue and yellow lights.
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