Toxic metabolites from culture filtrate of Fusarium oxysporum and its effects on cucumber cells and plantlets

Metabólitos tóxicos de filtrado de cultura de Fusarium oxysporum e seus efeitos em células e plântulas de pepino

Toxic metabolites from culture filtrate of Fusarium oxysporum and its effects on cucumber cells and plantlets

Itamar Soares de Melo1^*; Everaldo Piccinin²

¹EMBRAPA Meio Ambiente, Jaguariúna, SP, Brasil. ²Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz", Piracicaba, SP, Brasil

Submitted: April 24, 1998; Returned to authors for corrections: September 29, 1998; Approved: April 08, 1999

SHORT COMMUNICATION

ABSTRACT

Resistance of cucumber plantlets to culture filtrate of Fusarium oxysporum is correlated with resistance of single cells from callus. Single cells and plantlets of two cultivars of cucumber were incubated with culture filtrates. Rapid cell death occurred, as assessed by the stain fluorescein diacetate. More cell death ocurred in the cells of the cultivar Aodai than in to cells of the cultivar Caipira, which presented high level of resistance. Maximum toxic activity of culture filtrates was attained after 21-25 days of growth of the fungus.

Key words: Fusarium oxysporum, single cells, cucumber, toxic metabolites

Fusarium oxysporum causes wilt and is a major pathogen of cucumber in greenhouse condition in São Paulo State, Brazil. In young seedlings the cotyledons lose their green color, droop, and wither. In old plants, leaves wilt during the day for several successive days, and then wilt permanently. There is no resistance in commercial cultivars under those conditions and little is known of the inheritance of resistance. The use of resistant cultivars is the most efficient way to control the fungus.

Although effective, the currently used root inoculation and soil infestation with the pathogen for screening procedures are laborious, time consuming and some times permit many scapes.

Correlation of resistance to a parasite and resistance to its toxins is a necessary prerequisite for such use of phytotoxins. (1, 3, 5, 6, 7) Phytotoxins are useful tools for selection techniques in callus cultures and seedlings.

In this paper, the killing of seedlings and single cells of cucumber has been used to detect phytotoxic activity of F. oxysporum in two cultivars, Aodai and Caipira. The cultivar Caipira has been considered to be more resistant than Aodai by farmers.

Culture of the fungus (isolated from infected cucumber plants) was maintained on PDA slopes (potato-dextrose-agar) at 28ºC and stored at 8ºC. The fungus was grown on a defined liquid medium, Czapek-Dox. The medium was adjusted to pH 5.5. For bulk production of culture filtrate, 200 ml of medium in an 1 L erlenmeyer flask was inoculated with three mycelial plugs taken from the ege of 7-day old cultures grown on PDA. The flasks were incubated on a rotary shaker (150 rpm at 28ºC). At harvesting the mycelium was collected and filtered through whatman 3 mm filter paper. The broth cultures were then filter sterilized by passing them, under vaccum, through millipore filter (pore diameter of 0.2 mm).

Callus was initiated from leaves of two cultivars of cucumber (Aodai and Caipira) on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 11.40 mg/ml NAA and 20 g/L sucrose. Cell suspensions were initiated from the rapidly growing callus cultures of both cultivars on MS supplemented with 20 g/L sucrose and three different combinations of hormones. Medium 1 with 11.40 mg/L NAA, Medium 2 with 5 mM 2.4-D and 5 mM BAP and Medium 3 with 5 mM NAA and 5 mM BAP.

Toxic metabolites from Fusarium oxysporum were produced and interacted in vitro with two cultivars of cucumber: Aodai and Caipira.

A time course experiment for the accumulation of toxic metabolites was performed. Culture filtrates of different ages were assayed for toxic activity with three week old plantlets of the two cultivars.

Seven day old cell suspensions of cucumber were interacted with 21 day old toxic metabolites from Fusarium oxysporum. Fusaric acid (5-Butylpicolinic acid) (Sigma) was included in the experiments as control. Cell viability was estimated by epifluorescence microscopy, using fluorescein diacetate staining.

Cucumber seeds of both cultivars were sterilized and planted in an equal mixture of autoclaved soil and vermiculite. Pots of 800 ml, containing the mixture were maintained in greenhouse for three weeks.

Healthy, vigorous seedlings were aseptically removed from the soil. The soil adering to the roots was removed by washing with tap water and root system was immersed in different concentrations of toxic metabolites or in distilled water.

Disease incidence was evaluated in terms of severity of wilt as compared with control plants.

Maximum toxic activity of culture filtrate of F. oxysporum was attained after 14-25 days of growth of the fungus (Table 1). Therefore, 25 days old culture was used in all subsequent experiments. In this trial, it was observed that the cultivar Caipira presented a good level of resistance to F. oxysporum when compared to cultivar Aodai. Percent of wilt increased with age of F. oxysporum culture filtrates.

The severity of wilt in Aodai and Caipira plantlets was shown to be concentration dependent (Table 2). The autoclaved culture filtrate produced the same level of disease symptoms as the non-autoclaved culture filtrate; indicating the presence of heat resistant toxic metabolites.

Growth of cucumber cells was good on medium 3 and produced cells of a single nature in comparison to media 1 and 2. Hence, cucumber cell suspensions were maintained on medium 3. Seven days old cell suspensions were interacted with 21 days old toxic metabolites from F. oxysporum. More cell death occurred in the cells of the cultivar Aodai in comparison to cells of the tolerant cultivar Caipira (Table 3). This cultivar could be included in breeding programs to introduce resistance in commercial cultivars.

The advantages of using cells and protoplasts over whole plants for assaying toxic have been discussed in detail elsewhere (2, 4, 9). An effective screening procedure has to be amenable for testing a large number of plants, and it should be simple, relatively rapid, and significantly differential. All assays evaluated satisfied these criteria and could be used in breeding programs. The action of the culture filtrate on cell suspensions of cucumber, closely reflect the action of the filtrate in plantlets suggesting a role fungal extracellular toxic compounds in the disease.

RESUMO

Metabólitos tóxicos de filtrado de cultura de Fusarium oxysporum e seus efeitos em células e plântulas de pepino

Plântulas de pepino e células isoladas obtidas de calos, das cultivares Aodai e Caipira foram incubadas com filtrado de cultura de Fusarium oxysporum, em condições assépticas. As reações de murchamento das plântulas frente à ação do filtrado evidenciaram que as cultivares Aodai e Caipira se comportaram como suscetível e resistente, respectivamente. Após avaliação da reação de células isoladas, sob microscópio acoplado com epifluorescência, utilizando-se de acetato de fluoresceína, discriminou-se a porcentagem de células mortas. A cultivar Aodai se comportou como extremamente suscetível e a Caipira como resistente.

Estes resultados sugerem que compostos tóxicos extracelulares produzidos pelo patógeno servem para utilização em "screening" de cultivares, como também para seleção de células sobreviventes quando submetidas ao filtrado tóxico do fungo com vistas à obtenção de regenerantes resistentes.

Palavras-chave: Fusarium oxysporum, células isoladas, pepino, metabólitos tóxicos.

• ¹
  Behnke, M. Selection of potato callus for resistance to culture filtrates of Phytophthora infestans and regeneration of resistant plants. Theor. Appl. Genet. 55:69-71, 1979.
• ²
  Breiman, A. and Gallun, E. Plant protoplasts as tool in quantitative assays of phytotoxic compounds from Phytophthora citrophthora Physiol. Plant. Pathol 19:181-191, 1981.
• ³
  Byther, R.S.; Steiner, G.W. Use of helminthosporoside to select sugarcane seedlings resistant to eye spot disease. Phytopathology 62:466-476, 1972.
• ⁴
  Gendlof, E.H.; Scheffer, R.P.; Somerville, S.C. An improved biossay for victorin based on the use of bat protoplasts. Physiol. Mol. Plant. Pathol 31:421-427, 1987.
• ⁵
  Kuo, M.S.; Yoder, O.C.; Scheffer, R.P. Comparative specifity of the toxin of Helminthosporium carbonum and H. victoriae. Phytopathology 60:365-368, 1970.
• ⁶
  Martern, V.; Strobe, G.; Shepard, J. Reaction to phytotoxins in potato population derived from mesophyl protoplasts. Proc. Nac. Acad. Sci USA 75:4935-4939, 1978.
• ⁷
  Michael, S.H. and Carr, A.J.H. Use of culture filtrates as a rapid technique for screening lucerne for resistance to Verticillium albo-atrum. Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc 49:133-138, 1966.
• ⁸
  Panton, C. A. The breeding of lucern, Medicago sativa, for resistance to Verticillium albo-atrum IV. Evidence for the presence of a toxic substance in culture filtrate of the causal organism and its effects on plants. Acta Agric Scand. 17:59-77, 1967.
• ⁹
  Shohet, S. and Strange, R.S. Use of isolated cells and protoplasts to detect phytotoxic activity in cultures of Phytophthora drechsleri f.sp. cajani Physiol. Mol. Plant. Pathol 34:345-359, 1989.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: EMBRAPA Meio Ambiente. Caixa Postal 69. CEP 13820-000. Jaguariúna. SP. Brasil.

Corresponding author. Mailing address: EMBRAPA Meio Ambiente. Caixa Postal 69. CEP 13820-000. Jaguariúna. SP. Brasil.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  06 Jan 2000
• Date of issue
  Apr 1999

History

• Accepted
  08 Apr 1999
• Received
  24 Apr 1998
• Reviewed
  29 Sept 1998