Facultad de Agronomía, IFEVA, Universidad de Buenos Aires, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile.
Plant Cell Environ. 2021 Aug;44(8):2716-2728. doi: 10.1111/pce.14047. Epub 2021 Mar 26.
Ground-level ozone is a global air pollutant with high toxicity and represents a threat to plants and microorganisms. Although beneficial microorganisms can improve host performance, their role in connecting environmentally induced maternal plant phenotypes to progeny (transgenerational effects [TGE]) is unknown. We evaluated fungal endophyte-mediated consequences of maternal plant exposure to ozone on performance of the progeny under contrasting scenarios of the same factor (high and low) at two stages: seedling and young plant. With no variation in biomass, maternal ozone-induced oxidative damage in the progeny that was lower in endophyte-symbiotic plants. This correlated with an endophyte-mediated higher concentration of proline, a defence compound associated with stress control. Interestingly, ozone-induced TGE was not associated with reductions in plant survival. On the contrary, there was an overall positive effect on seedling survival in the presence of endophytes. The positive effect of maternal ozone increasing young plant survival was irrespective of symbiosis and only expressed under high ozone condition. Our study shows that hereditary microorganisms can modulate the capacity of plants to transgenerationally adjust progeny phenotype to atmospheric change.
地面臭氧是一种具有高毒性的全球空气污染物，对植物和微生物构成威胁。虽然有益微生物可以改善宿主的性能，但它们在将环境诱导的母体植物表型与后代（跨代效应[TGE]）联系起来的作用尚不清楚。我们评估了母体植物暴露于臭氧后，在两个阶段（幼苗和幼树）下，在同一因素（高和低）的不同情况下，真菌内生菌介导的对后代性能的影响：幼苗和幼树。内生菌共生植物中，与母体臭氧诱导的氧化损伤相关的后代生物量没有变化，内生菌介导的脯氨酸浓度更高，而脯氨酸是一种与应激控制相关的防御化合物。有趣的是，臭氧诱导的 TGE 与植物存活率的降低无关。相反，内生菌的存在总体上对幼苗存活率有积极影响。母体臭氧增加幼树存活率的积极影响与共生无关，仅在高臭氧条件下表现出来。我们的研究表明，遗传微生物可以调节植物的能力，使其能够跨代调整后代的表型以适应大气变化。
