Validamycin A Induces Broad-Spectrum Resistance Involving Salicylic Acid and Jasmonic Acid/Ethylene Signaling Pathways

Abstract

Validamycin A (VMA) is an aminoglycoside antibiotic used to control rice sheath blight. Although it has been reported that VMA can induce the plant defense responses, the mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we found that reactive oxygen species (ROS) bursts and callose deposition in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>, rice (<i>Oryza sativa</i> L.), and wheat (<i>Triticum aestivum</i> L.) were induced by VMA and were most intense with 10 μg of VMA per milliliter at 24 h. Moreover, we showed that VMA induced resistance against <i>Pseudomonas syringae</i>, <i>Botrytis cinerea,</i> and <i>Fusarium graminearum</i> in <i>Arabidopsis</i> leaves, indicating that VMA induces broad-spectrum disease resistance in both dicots and monocots. In addition, VMA-mediated resistance against <i>P. syringae</i> was not induced in <i>NahG</i> transgenic plants, was partially decreased in <i>npr1</i> mutants, and VMA-mediated resistance to <i>B. cinerea</i> was not induced in <i>npr1</i>, <i>jar1</i>, and <i>ein2</i> mutants. These results strongly indicated that VMA triggers plant defense responses to both biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens involved in salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid/ethylene (JA/ET) signaling pathways and is dependent on NPR1. In addition, transcriptome analysis further revealed that VMA regulated the expression of genes involved in SA, JA/ET, abscisic acid (ABA), and auxin signal pathways. Taken together, VMA induces systemic resistance involving in SA and JA/ET signaling pathways and also exerts a positive influence on ABA and auxin signaling pathways. Our study highlights the creative application of VMA in triggering plant defense responses against plant pathogens, providing a valuable insight into applying VMA to enhance plant resistance and reduce the use of chemical pesticides.[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.