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Mortierella alpina CS10E4, an oleaginous fungal endophyte of Crocus sativus L. enhances apocarotenoid biosynthesis and stress tolerance in the host plant
Crocus sativus is the only plant species which produces apocarotenoids like crocin, picrocrocin and safranal in significant amounts. These compounds impart organoleptic properties to saffron (dried stigmas of Crocus flower) making it world’s costliest spice. Crocus apocarotenoids have tremendous med...
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Published in: | Scientific reports 2017-08, Vol.7 (1), p.8598-11, Article 8598 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Crocus sativus
is the only plant species which produces apocarotenoids like crocin, picrocrocin and safranal in significant amounts. These compounds impart organoleptic properties to saffron (dried stigmas of
Crocus
flower) making it world’s costliest spice.
Crocus
apocarotenoids have tremendous medicinal properties as well. Effect of endophytes on
Crocus
apocarotenoid production and the molecular mechanism involved has not been reported so far. Here we studied the effect of an oleaginous fungal endophyte,
Mortierella alpina
CS10E4 on
Crocus
growth, apocarotenoid metabolism and tolerance to corm rot disease. The results demonstrated that there was a significant improvement in many morphological and physiological traits in endophyte treated
Crocus
plants including total biomass and size of corms, stigma biomass, number of apical sprouting buds, and number of adventitious roots. The endophyte also shifted metabolic flux towards enhanced production of apocarotenoids by modulating the expression of key pathway genes. Further,
M. alpina
CS10E4 enhanced tolerance to corm rot disease by releasing arachidonic acid which acts as conserved defense signal and induces jasmonic acid production in endophyte treated
Crocus
corms. This is first report on effect of a fungal endophyte on
Crocus
apocarotenoid metabolism and stress tolerance. |
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ISSN: | 2045-2322 2045-2322 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-017-08974-z |