Can lichen secondary compounds impact upon the pathogenic soil fungi Fusarium oxysporum and F. avenaceum?

Abstract

The antifungal activity of secondary lichen metabolites extracted by means of acetone and ethanol from Cetraria islandica, Cladonia mitis, C. rangiferina, Pseudevernia furfuracea and Usnea dasopoga on the pathogenic fungi Fusarium oxysporum and F. avenacuem was examined. The activity of extracted compounds was tested after their mixture with PDA medium before solidification. The most active extracts inhibiting the growth of fungal mycelia contained fumarprotocetraric, salazinic and usnic acids, and atranorin. Unparalleled activity was demonstrated by an ethanol extract from mixed C. islandica and P. furfuracea thalli, which accelerated the growth of F. avenaceum compared with the control test with ethanol. The growth rate of the two Fusarium representatives was strongly inhibited by both alcoholic extracts from C. mitis and from C. rangiferina, more strongly than by the extracts from the mixed thalli of the two terricolous taxa. A dose of 1 ml of acetone added to the medium had no significant effect on the growth of the tested fungi; it indicates usefulness of acetone as a solvent for some lichen compounds in this type of experiment.

A review of the potential of lichen substances as antifungal agents: the effects of extracts and lichen secondary metabolites on Fusarium fungi

“…Tekiela et al ( 2021 ) tested six combinations using corticolous and terricolous lichen species. The highest level of relative inhibition of mycelial growth dynamics was measured for acetone-extracted substances from Cladonia mitis (6.6% relative mycelial growth compared to mycelial dimensions in the control sample) after 180 h of the experiment.…”

“…DDM was applied for IZ (see: Aslan et al 2006 ; Sarıözlü et al 2016 ) and Agar well diffusion method (AWDM) (see: Ranković and Mišić 2007 ; Shivanna and Garampalli 2015 ). Other methods for measuring mycelial growth included poisoned food technique (PFT) (see: Halama and van Haluwin 2004 ; Karabulut and Ozturk 2015 ; Tekiela et al 2021 ) and Spore germination inhibition (SGI) (see: Shahi et al 2003 ). The most frequently used methods were DDM and BTDM, while BMMwTTC, MMwR, AWDM, BMM and PFT were used less frequently; SGI was only used in a few cases.…”

“…The most frequently used methods were DDM and BTDM, while BMMwTTC, MMwR, AWDM, BMM and PFT were used less frequently; SGI was only used in a few cases. If the researchers did not directly state the name of the research method used (i.e., PFT; Tekiela et al 2021 ) or there were some discrepancies in the names [i.e., Kirby and Bauer disk diffusion method—as DDM (i.e., Babiah et al 2014a ) or Microbroth dilution method—as MMwR (i.e., Sarıözlü et al 2016 )], they were classified according to the method employed. Professional descriptions of BTDM, BMM and DDM are given by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI 2015a , b ; 2017 ).…”

“…Of particular interest is the ability of Fusarium spp. pathogens to infect plants, such as F. avenaceum , F. fujikuroi , F. oxysporum and F. solani described in this review; these damage crop plants, e.g., tomato wilt (Isaac et 2018 ), yam wilt (Dongzhen et al 2020 ), banana wilt (Ujat et al 2021 ), wheat seed (Köycü 2018 ) and ear rot in maize (Oldenburg et al 2017 ) or cause tree infections ( Pinus sylvestris , Alnus glutinosa and Larix decidua ) (Tekiela et al 2021 ). Contamination of grains is the reason for their loss of quality (Nelson et al 1994 ) or food products (Ji et al 2019 ; Oldenburg et al 2017 ).…”

“…The solubility of lichen phenols in water has been increasingly reported (Zagoskina et al 2013 ; Zavarzina et al 2019 ). Lichen compounds are most efficiently extracted with organic solvents, although deeper analysis indicates more complex relationships; see chemical profiles, for example, in Jin et al ( 2013 ), Millot et al ( 2017 ), Tekiela et al ( 2021 ) and Voicu et al ( 2019 ). The role of secondary metabolites is primarily a protective function of the lichen thallus against stress factors (Legouin et al 2017 ; Veres et al 2020 ); these may increase its dry weight (Farkas et al 2020 ; Proko’ev et al 2018 ), by more than 50% in the case of a single secondary compound such as physodic acid included in a substances mixture (Latkowska et al 2019 ).…”