Garlic Volatile Diallyl Disulfide Induced Cucumber Resistance to Downy Mildew

Allicin compositions in garlic are used widely as fungicides in modern agriculture, in which diallyl disulfide (DADS) is a major compound. Downy mildew, caused by <i>Pseudoperonospora cubensis</i> (<i>P. cubensis</i>), is one of the most destructive diseases and causes severe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fan Yang, Hui Wang, Chengchen Zhi, Birong Chen, Yujie Zheng, Lijun Qiao, Jingcao Gao, Yupeng Pan, Zhihui Cheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-11-01
Series:International Journal of Molecular Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/22/12328
Description
Summary:Allicin compositions in garlic are used widely as fungicides in modern agriculture, in which diallyl disulfide (DADS) is a major compound. Downy mildew, caused by <i>Pseudoperonospora cubensis</i> (<i>P. cubensis</i>), is one of the most destructive diseases and causes severe yield losses in cucumbers. To explore the potential mechanism of DADS-induced cucumber resistance to downy mildew, cucumber seedlings were treated with DADS and then inoculated with <i>P. cubensis</i> at a 10-day interval. Symptom observation showed that DADS significantly induced cucumber resistance to downy mildew. Furthermore, both lignin and H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> were significantly increased by DADS treatment to responding <i>P. cubensis</i> infection. Simultaneously, the enzyme activities of peroxidase (POD) in DADS-treated seedlings were significantly promoted. Meanwhile, both the auxin (IAA) and salicylic acid (SA) contents were increased, and their related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were up-regulated when treated with DADS. Transcriptome profiling showed that many DEGs were involved in the biological processes of defense responses, in which DEGs on the pathways of ‘phenylpropanoid biosynthesis’, ‘phenylalanine metabolism’, ‘MAPK signaling’, and ‘plant hormone signal transduction’ were significantly up-regulated in DADS-treated cucumbers uninoculated with the pathogen. Based on the results of several physiological indices and transcriptomes, a potential molecular mechanism of DADS-induced cucumber resistance to downy mildew was proposed and discussed. The results of this study might give new insight into the exploration of the induced resistance mechanism of cucumber to downy mildew and provide useful information for the subsequent mining of resistance genes in cucumber.
ISSN:1661-6596
1422-0067