Suprathreshold water spray stimulus enhances plant defenses against biotic stresses in tomato

Authors: LIU, LE - Huazhong University Of Science And Technology; SUN, ZE - Huazhong University Of Science And Technology; TANG, RUI - Huazhong University Of Science And Technology; SHI, JIN-HUA - Huazhong University Of Science And Technology; ZHANG, LIQIONG - Huazhong University Of Science And Technology; Zhang, Aijun; WANG, MAN-QUN - Huazhong University Of Science And Technology

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/30/2024
Publication Date: 9/9/2024
Citation: Liu, L., Sun, Z., Tang, R., Shi, J., Zhang, L., Zhang, A., Wang, M. 2024. Suprathreshold water spray stimulus enhances plant defenses against biotic stresses in tomato. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 72(37). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.4c05131.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.4c05131

Interpretive Summary: Plant protection activities are the most important practices during crop production. Over the last few decades, advanced automatic spraying technologies have grown for pesticide application for plant protection in agriculture. Based on our research, these advanced spraying technologies not only can be used in pesticide application, but also in water irrigation of plants to enhance their own defensive responses and optimize crop growth. In this paper, we demonstrated that resistances against insect pest and fungal disease, secondary metabolite processes, photosynthetic efficiency, volatile organic compounds emission, and architecture of tomato plants could be modulated just by changing the rate of water spray stimulation and all advantages could only be achieved by low atomization rate water spray stimulation. Our low atomization rate water spray stimulation technique, combined with the means of crop genetic breeding, green and simple cultivation will pave the way for reducing pesticide and disease resistances as well as pest resurgence problems in crop production. Low atomization rate water spray stimulation technique reported in our manuscript is novel, practical, and feasible to be achieved in agricultural without much additional investment. We believe that the findings from this study provide a new concept for agricultural cultivation and open the door for development of novel, practical, and feasible tool with high impact on applied technology. This will attract wide interest among growers, farmers, and researchers and enable them to develop practical solutions for modern agricultural crop cultivation.

Technical Abstract: Mechanical stress is ubiquitous in the life activities of plants and the frequency of mechanical stimulation often affects plant growth and development. However, as one of the most common mechanical stimuli, the effect of water spray on plant growth and resistance is unclear. In this study, the impact of water spray on the growth and resistance of tomato plants was investigated. Here we show that the water spray stimulation rate modulates plant resistance and influences tomato thigomorphogenesis. We found in assays of insect feeding and oviposition, fungal inoculation, and gene expression that defensive responses of tomato plants to the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera and necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea have been regulated by water spray stimulation. Our results demonstrated that only low atomization rate water spray stimulation significantly enhanced the level of a key secondary metabolite, chlorogenic acid, through jasmonic acid modulation, increased photosynthetic efficiency, and decreased the emissions of volatile organic compounds of tomato plant to fend off the insect and pathogen attacks, resulting in optimization of tomato plant architecture. Thus, our discovery provides a new perspective for sustainable management of insect pests and fungal diseases for tomato plants in agroecosystems and opens the door for development of novel, practical, and feasible tool for modern agricultural crop cultivation techniques.