Salicylic Acid Seed Priming Enhanced Resistance in Wheat Against Fusarium graminearum Seedling Blight

Priming of seeds is a simple and low-cost method in agriculture that improves plant growth, crop yield, and manages pathogens. The current study was carried out to determine SA seed priming effect on susceptibility and resistance of two wheat cultivars (Falat and Sumai3) to Fusarium graminearum at the seedling stage. Both the 1 and 2 mM SA-primed seeds showed a higher level of resistance against F. graminearum, as a lower disease incidence of 53% and 63% in the Falat and 48% and 76% in the Sumai3 was observed compared to the F. graminearum-inoculated water-primed control. Along with the increased resistance induced by SA priming, we observed increased activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidases (POX) and phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), in addition to higher mRNA accumulation of PAL, beta-1,3-glucanase (GLU-2), chitinase (CHI), cytochrome P450 (CYP), and pleiotropic drug resistance (PDR) genes compared to the water-primed F. graminearum-inoculated control. Therefore, SA seed priming is a suitable alternative to manage the incidence of F. graminearum infection by triggering plant defense responses.

Automated summary

Seed priming with salicylic acid enhances resistance of wheat cultivars to Fusarium graminearum, leading to increased activity of defense proteins and genes.