La Trobe

High doses of melatonin confer abiotic stress tolerance to phytopathogenic fungi grown in vitro

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posted on 2024-05-30, 08:07 authored by Andrew MadiganAndrew Madigan, Christopher Harris, Frank BedonFrank Bedon, Ashley FranksAshley Franks, Kim PlummerKim Plummer

ABSTRACT: Melatonin is a secondary metabolite produced in all domains of life. Exogenous melatonin triggers defence mechanisms in plants that enhance abiotic stress tolerance. However, knowledge regarding the role of melatonin as a signal or an antioxidant in microbes is lacking. We investigated the in vitro growth responses of three phytopathogenic fungi, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. vasinfectum, to abiotic stress (2.5% ethanol with/without cold priming) under varying concentrations of melatonin. Melatonin at high concentrations (1000 – 2000 µM) partially restored fungal growth under stress, compared to controls, suggesting a role for melatonin in alleviating the impacts of stress exposure. Understanding how melatonin impacts fungal growth during stress conditions will be important for future applications using melatonin as a tool for crop protection.

Funding

This work was funded by an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) and Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) provided by La Trobe University.

History

Publication Date

2020-06-01

Journal

Melatonin Research

Volume

3

Issue

2

Pagination

7p. (p. 187-193)

Publisher

ST-Bio-Life LLC

ISSN

2641-0281

Rights Statement

© The Authors 2020. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 For all articles published in Melatonin Res., copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work, while ensuring that the authors receive proper credit.

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