Comparison of Drought and Heat Resistance Strategies among Six Populations of Solanum chilense and Two Cultivars of Solanum lycopersicum

Within the tomato clade, Solanum chilense is considered one of the most promising sources of genes for tomato (S. lycopersicum) selection to biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, we compared the effects of drought, high temperature, and their combination in two cultivars of S. lycopersicum and six populations of S. chilense, differing in their local habitat. Plants were grown at 21/19 °C or 28/26 °C under well-watered and water-stressed conditions. Plant growth, physiological responses, and expression of stress-responsive genes were investigated. Our results demonstrated strong variability among accessions. Differences in plant growth parameters were even higher among S. chilense populations than between species. The effects of water stress, high temperature, and their combination also differed according to the accession, suggesting differences in stress resistance between species and populations. Overall, water stress affected plants more negatively than temperature from a morpho-physiological point of view, while the expression of stress-responsive genes was more affected by temperature than by water stress. Accessions clustered in two groups regarding resistance to water stress and high temperature. The sensitive group included the S. lycopersicum cultivars and the S. chilense populations LA2931 and LA1930, and the resistant group included the S. chilense populations LA1958, LA2880, LA2765, and LA4107. Our results suggested that resistance traits were not particularly related to the environmental conditions in the natural habitat of the populations. The expression of stress-responsive genes was more stable in resistant accessions than in sensitive ones in response to water stress and high temperature. Altogether, our results suggest that water stress and high temperature resistance in S. chilense did not depend on single traits but on a combination of morphological, physiological, and genetic traits.

Intraspecific diversity observed in the wild tomato species Solanum chilense in initial immune responses towards a glucan elicitor.

Natural plant populations are highly polymorphic and often show intraspecific quantitative, variation in resistance properties against pathogens. The activation of the underlying defence responses can depend on the perception of conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). To dissect and understand such variation, we evaluated the diversity of responses induced by laminarin (representing a general glucan elicitor of plant immune responses) in the wild tomato species Solanum chilense. We confirm considerable overlap of the plant's global transcriptional responses to laminarin and to the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans. We further measured key components of basal defence responses such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and levels of diverse phytohormones and their derivatives upon elicitation with laminarin in 83 plants originating from nine natural populations of S. chilense from distinct geographic origin. We found high diversity in these components at basal and elicitor-induced levels. We generated generalised linear mixed models (GLMMs) with these components to explain the observed resistance phenotype against P. infestans in the plants and found that additive effects of multiple components best explain resistance at the species level. For individual components, we observed the strongest positive correlation between the resistance phenotype and ethylene (ET) production upon laminarin elicitation. The strength of this correlation differed between individual populations. Chemical inhibition of ET production in individuals from a population, in which ET production was associated with resistance, provoked more severe disease symptoms. Our findings reveal high diversity in the strength of induced defence responses within a species and in the basal levels of other stress-related phytohormones. We show the involvement of multiple components with a quantitatively different contribution of individual components to resistance in geographically separated populations of S. chilense against P. infestans.

Quantitative resistance differences between and within natural populations of Solanum chilense against the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans

The wild tomato species Solanum chilense is divided in geographically and genetically distinct populations that show signs of defense gene selection and differential phenotypes when challenged with several phytopathogens, including the oomycete causal agent of late blight Phytophthora infestans. To better understand the phenotypic diversity of this disease resistance in S. chilense and to assess the effect of plant genotype vs. pathogen isolate, respectively, we evaluated infection frequency in a systematic approach and with large sample sizes. We studied 85 genetically distinct individuals representing nine geographically separated populations of S. chilense. This showed that differences in quantitative resistance properties can be observed between but also within populations at the level of individual plants. Data also did not reveal clear indications for complete immunity in any of the genotypes. We further evaluated the resistance of a subset of the plants against P. infestans isolates with diverse virulence properties. This confirmed that the relative differences in resistance phenotypes between individuals were mainly determined by the plant genotype under consideration with modest effects of pathogen isolate used in the study. Thus, our report suggest that quantitative resistance against P. infestans in natural populations of a wild tomato species S. chilense is likely not the result of specific adaptations of hosts to the pathogen but of basal defence responses that depend on the host genotype and are pathogen isolate-unspecific.

Population studies of the wild tomato species Solanum chilense reveal geographically structured major gene-mediated pathogen resistance

Natural plant populations encounter strong pathogen pressure and defence-associated genes are known to be under selection dependent on the pressure by the pathogens. Here, we use populations of the wild tomato Solanum chilense to investigate natural resistance against Cladosporium fulvum , a well-known ascomycete pathogen of domesticated tomatoes. Host populations used are from distinct geographical origins and share a defined evolutionary history. We show that distinct populations of S. chilense differ in resistance against the pathogen. Screening for major resistance gene-mediated pathogen recognition throughout the whole species showed clear geographical differences between populations and complete loss of pathogen recognition in the south of the species range. In addition, we observed high complexity in a homologues of Cladosporium resistance ( Hcr ) locus, underlying the recognition of C. fulvum, in central and northern populations. Our findings show that major gene-mediated recognition specificity is diverse in a natural plant-pathosystem. We place major gene resistance in a geographical context that also defined the evolutionary history of that species. Data suggest that the underlying loci are more complex than previously anticipated, with small-scale gene recombination being possibly responsible for maintaining balanced polymorphisms in the populations that experience pathogen pressure.

Understanding salt tolerance mechanism using transcriptome profiling and de novo assembly of wild tomato Solanum chilense

Soil salinity affects the plant growth and productivity detrimentally, but Solanum chilense, a wild relative of cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), is known to have exceptional salt tolerance. It has precise adaptations against direct exposure to salt stress conditions. Hence, a better understanding of the mechanism to salinity stress tolerance by S. chilense can be accomplished by comprehensive gene expression studies. In this study 1-month-old seedlings of S. chilense and S. lycopersicum were subjected to salinity stress through application of sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. Through RNA-sequencing here we have studied the differences in the gene expression patterns. A total of 386 million clean reads were obtained through RNAseq analysis using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. Clean reads were further assembled de novo into a transcriptome dataset comprising of 514,747 unigenes with N50 length of 578 bp and were further aligned to the public databases. Genebank non-redundant (Nr), Viridiplantae, Gene Ontology (GO), KOG, and KEGG databases classification suggested enrichment of these unigenes in 30 GO categories, 26 KOG, and 127 pathways, respectively. Out of 265,158 genes that were differentially expressed in response to salt treatment, 134,566 and 130,592 genes were significantly up and down-regulated, respectively. Upon placing all the differentially expressed genes (DEG) in known signaling pathways, it was evident that most of the DEGs involved in cytokinin, ethylene, auxin, abscisic acid, gibberellin, and Ca2+ mediated signaling pathways were up-regulated. Furthermore, GO enrichment analysis was performed using REVIGO and up-regulation of multiple genes involved in various biological processes in chilense under salinity were identified. Through pathway analysis of DEGs, “Wnt signaling pathway” was identified as a novel pathway for the response to the salinity stress. Moreover, key genes for salinity tolerance, such as genes encoding proline and arginine metabolism, ROS scavenging system, transporters, osmotic regulation, defense and stress response, homeostasis and transcription factors were not only salt-induced but also showed higher expression in S. chilense as compared to S. lycopersicum. Thus indicating that these genes may have an important role in salinity tolerance in S. chilense. Overall, the results of this study improve our understanding on possible molecular mechanisms underlying salt tolerance in plants in general and tomato in particular.

Effects of Salt Stress on Fruit Antioxidant Capacity of Wild (Solanum chilense) and Domesticated (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) Tomatoes

The effects of salt on the quality of fruits were investigated in order to compare the impact of salt on key fruit properties of the cultivated domesticated tomato species (Solanum lycopersicum) and its wild halophyte relative Solanum chilense. To this end, cherry tomato plants (S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) and from accession LA4107 (S. chilense) were maintained for 112 days in the absence or presence of NaCl (40 and 80 mM) in nutrient solution. Among others, salinity decreased fruit weight and increased total soluble solid (TSS) in S. lycopersicum but not in S. chilense. The fruit antioxidant capacity estimated by ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) analysis was higher in S. chilense than in S. lycopersicum and increased in the former while it decreased in the latter in response to NaCl. Salinity increased the lycopene (LYC) content but decreased ß-carotene (b-CAR) concentration in the fruits of S. lycopersicum, while these compounds were not detected in the wild halophyte S. chilense. The oxidative status of salt-treated fruits was more tightly regulated in S. chilense than in S. lycopersicum. The two considered species, however, possess complementary properties and interspecific crosses may therefore be considered as a promising option for the improvement of salt-stress resistance in tomatoes.