Effects of endophytic colonization with Azospirillum strain on disease resistance in tomato plants
M. FUJITA (1), Y. Okumura (1), M. Kusajima (1), H. Nakashita (1) (1) Fukui Prefectural University, Japan

Plants have various kinds of interactions with microbes.  Among them, some of endophytic interactions are speculated to have some benefits to the host plants, however, not so many evidences have been clarified.  We have found that a bacterial endophyte, Azospirillum sp. B510, induced disease resistance in rice and Arabidopsis.  In this study, we analyzed the effects of a bacterial endophyte, Azospirillum sp. B510, on disease resistance in tomato plants. Tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Momotaro) inoculated with B510 exhibited enhanced resistance against diseases caused by the Pseudomonas syrinage pv. tomato. The expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes was not induced by interaction with this bacterium.  The levels of SA were not influenced by the colonization with strain B510.  These results indicated the possibility that strain B510 is able to induce disease resistance in tomato by activating “priming”, a novel type of resistance mechanism independent of SA-mediated defense signaling.    

Abstract Number: P18-670
Session Type: Poster