Papel funcional de los hongos endófitos del olmo común (ulmus minor mill.) en la resistencia al estrés biótico y abiótico
- Autores: Clara Martínez Arias
- Directores de la Tesis: Jesús Rodríguez Calcerrada (codir. tes.), Juan Antonio Martín García (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid ( España ) en 2021
- Idioma: español
- Materias:
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- Resumen
Plant-associated microbes have an enormous potential to alleviate plant stress and disease thanks to their high diversity and their wide array of ecological traits. The opportunity to modulate or engineer plant microbiomes to boost certain plant functions has opened new prospects for plant management against biotic and abiotic stresses, including agroforestry systems under the threat of Global Change.
The severe impact of Dutch Elm Disease (DED) on elm populations worldwide and the difficulties for its management, together with the promising use of plant endophytes on disease research have stimulated elm microbial community studies. Recent advances revealed a relationship between the relative abundance of two core endophytic fungi (from classes Cystobasidiomycetes and Eurotiomycetes) and DED resistance, and the potential antagonistic behavior of an additional isolate from Dothideomycetes against O. novo-ulmi. In this work we aimed to investigate: i) the functional role of the three previously mentioned endophytes in the resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and ii) the influence of abiotic stresses on elm fungal microbiome composition.
The functional role of the two core endophytes was confirmed by the fact that elm plantlets inoculated with these endophytes had an elevated capacity to respond to and survive the abiotic stress. The antagonistic potential of the Dothideomycetous endophyte was associated to a reduction of DED-symptomatology in in vivo trials. These results suggest a positive role of endophytes in biotic and abiotic stress resistance that can be of importance in the fight against DED. The stimulation of defense priming, the reduction of pathogen load and the DED-symptomatology attenuation upon inoculation with the endophytes open new possibilities for the management of surviving U. minor stands. Moreover, the improvement of plant fitness under stressful conditions supports the use of endophytes in future elm reforestation programs to increase plant survival and growth during early stages of regeneration. Additionally, the restructuration of the root mycobiome composition under flood and drought may in turn determine elm response to these and other stresses. Therefore, the understanding of specific U. minor-endophyte associations could be useful to improve future strategies of microbiome engineering in the fight against DED.
