Biopesticides to combat plant diseases

With the aim of finding new molecular strategies and new bioproducts that improve the defense mechanisms of plants in a sustainable way, a team of researchers from the I+D+i Center for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (CBDS) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (PSU), in collaboration with the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (AAI) of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), has shown that the use of natural extracts based on essential oils produces changes in the immune memory of plants, which acquire new properties that increase their tolerance against high-impact diseases. These induced epigenetic effects endure over time, keeping the cell genome intact but alert. The results, applied to tomato plants, have been published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science.

The use of natural and non-polluting products in the agricultural and forestry environment has been a priority within the strategies of the European Community since 2018. Likewise, the search for new active and non-polluting biopesticides to combat high-impact plant diseases constitutes an essential research area.

In this context, the alteration epigenetics in plants using natural products can become a sustainable and harmless tool for plants to acquire new properties that make them more tolerant to diseases. This is the line of work that researchers from the UPM and the CSIC have followed, the use of epigenetics as an eco-sustainable tool in the field of plant pathology.

plant epigenetics

Epigenetics is a natural mechanism that allows plant memory to be modified without altering the genome. Plants, due to their exposure to changing and often unfavorable growing conditions, are adept at epigenetic regulation as it helps them survive.

In the laboratory led by Marta Berrocal-Lobo, CBDS researcher and the High School of Forestry, Forestry and Natural Environment Engineering of the UPM, the epigenetic effects of various natural products on plant cells are studied and characterized, without altering their genome, but acquiring improved immunity.

Some of these natural products are essential oils from different species of aromatic plants. Researchers from the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the CSIC, led by Azucena González Coloma, have characterized the biopesticide potential of essential oils from different species of aromatic plants, in particular, from the Artemisia absinthiuman ancient aromatic plant, already used in Egypt for its healing properties, and also used in the food industry.

Essential oils

The analyzes carried out at the UPM indicate that the essential oil of Artemisia absinthiumis capable of producing epigenetic changes in tomato plants, increasing their tolerance to the disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum sp.., a highly virulent fungus that causes great losses in numerous species, both horticultural and forestry.

The results have shown that the essential oil of Artemisia absinthium is capable of producing changes in DNA, without altering its sequence, but changing the expression levels of proteins that produce epigenetic changes and modify tomato methylation patterns, acquiring an improved immune memory against Fusarium sp. with respect to the plants not treated with the oil.

In the opinion of Marta Berrocal-Lobo, researcher who has led the work: “These results will allow us to deepen our knowledge about the epigenetic effects of these and other natural products to improve the immune memory of plants. Directed epigenetics, through the use of natural products, could constitute a new tool for the application of countless natural products in different plant species and with very diverse interest, both industrial and environmental. In addition, it would serve to reduce the use of soil and water contaminants, contributing to food security and eco-sustainable agroforestry practice”.

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Reference article: https://www.upm.es/?id=7c36dd9b7d002810VgnVCM10000009c7648a____&prefmt=articulo&fmt=detail