Blumenols as shoot markers for root symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany
- Leibniz-Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Germany
- Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, United States
- University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Abstract
High-through-put (HTP) screening for functional arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)-associations is challenging because roots must be excavated and colonization evaluated by transcript analysis or microscopy. Here we show that specific leaf-metabolites provide broadly applicable accurate proxies of these associations, suitable for HTP-screens. With a combination of untargeted and targeted metabolomics, we show that shoot accumulations of hydroxy- and carboxyblumenol C-glucosides mirror root AMF-colonization in Nicotiana attenuata plants. Genetic/pharmacologic manipulations indicate that these AMF-indicative foliar blumenols are synthesized and transported from roots to shoots. These blumenol-derived foliar markers, found in many di- and monocotyledonous crop and model plants (Solanum lycopersicum, Solanum tuberosum, Hordeum vulgare, Triticum aestivum, Medicago truncatula and Brachypodium distachyon), are not restricted to particular plant-AMF interactions, and are shown to be applicable for field-based QTL mapping of AMF-related genes.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data files have been provided for all figures.
Article and author information
Author details
Michael Bitterlich
Funding
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Open-access funding)
- Ming Wang
- Martin Schäfer
- Dapeng Li
- Rayko Halitschke
- Chuanfu Dong
- Erica McGale
- Christian Paetz
- Yuanyuan Song
- Suhua Li
- Junfu Dong
- Sven Heiling
- Karin Groten
- Ian T Baldwin
ERC Advanced Grant (ClockworkGreen (293926))
- Ian T Baldwin
Elsa Neumann Grant
- Philipp Franken
European Innovation Partnership Agri (276033540220041)
- Philipp Franken
Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture of Germany
- Philipp Franken
- Michael Bitterlich
Ministry for Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, Germany
- Philipp Franken
- Michael Bitterlich
Thuringian Ministry of Infrastructure and Agriculture
- Philipp Franken
- Michael Bitterlich
U.S. Department of Energy (# DESC0012460)
- Maria J Harrison
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2018, Wang et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Blumenols as shoot markers for root symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
eLife 7:e37093.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.37093
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