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Induced Systemic Resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana Against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato by 2,4-Diacetylphloroglucinol-Producing Pseudomonas fluorescens

First author: United States Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service, Root Disease and Biological Control Research Unit, Pullman, WA 99164-6430; second author: Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-6430; and third, fourth, fifth, and sixth authors: Plant–Microbe Interactions, Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3508 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Pseudomonas fluorescens strains that produce the polyketide antibiotic 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (2,4-DAPG) are among the most effective rhizobacteria that suppress root and crown rots, wilts, and damping-off diseases of a variety of crops, and they play a key role in the natural suppressiveness of some soils to certain soilborne pathogens. Root colonization by 2,4-DAPG-producing P. fluorescens strains Pf-5 (genotype A), Q2-87 (genotype B), Q8r1-96 (genotype D), and HT5-1 (genotype N) produced induced systemic resistance (ISR) in Arabidopsis thaliana accession Col-0 against bacterial speck caused by P. syringae pv. tomato. The ISR-eliciting activity of the four bacterial genotypes was similar, and all genotypes were equivalent in activity to the well-characterized strain P. fluorescens WCS417r. The 2,4-DAPG biosynthetic locus consists of the genes phlHGF and phlACBDE. phlD or phlBC mutants of Q2-87 (2,4-DAPG minus) were significantly reduced in ISR activity, and genetic complementation of the mutants restored ISR activity back to wild-type levels. A phlF regulatory mutant (overproducer of 2,4-DAPG) had ISR activity equivalent to the wild-type Q2-87. Introduction of DAPG into soil at concentrations of 10 to 250 μM 4 days before challenge inoculation induced resistance equivalent to or better than the bacteria. Strain Q2-87 induced resistance on transgenic NahG plants but not on npr1-1, jar1, and etr1 Arabidopsis mutants. These results indicate that the antibiotic 2,4-DAPG is a major determinant of ISR in 2,4-DAPG-producing P. fluorescens, that the genotype of the strain does not affect its ISR activity, and that the activity induced by these bacteria operates through the ethylene- and jasmonic acid-dependent signal transduction pathway.