Contrasting nutrient-disease relationships: Potassium gradients in barley leaves have opposite effects on two fungal pathogens with different sensitivities to jasmonic acid.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the interactions between mineral nutrition and disease is essential for crop management. Our previous studies with Arabidopsis thaliana demonstrated that potassium (K) deprivation induced the biosynthesis of jasmonic acid (JA) and increased the plant's resistance to herbivorous insects. Here, we addressed the question of how tissue K affects the development of fungal pathogens and whether sensitivity of the pathogens to JA could play a role for the K-disease relationship in barley (Hordeum vulgare cv. Optic). We report that K-deprived barley plants showed increased leaf concentrations of JA and other oxylipins. Furthermore, a natural tip-to-base K-concentration gradient within leaves of K-sufficient plants was quantitatively mirrored by the transcript levels of JA-responsive

SUBMITTER: Davis JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6175101 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature