Extreme environments as a driver of plant-fungus co-evolution
On behalf of our entire research team, I am super happy and proud to see our latest work finally published in Plant Molecular Biology. In this study, we asked the question as to whether three different root-colonizing fungal endophytes would trigger the same response modules in a host plant, or if they would rather provoke individual responses to confer increased drought tolerance to their host plant.
González Ortega-Villaizán A. et al. 2025 Plant Molecular Biology
The work was also featured on the website of the CBGP: https://short.upm.es/9oblu
Synopsis:
Global climate change exacerbates abiotic stresses, as drought, heat, and salt stresses are anticipated to increase significantly in the coming years. Plants coexist with a diverse range of microorganisms. Multiple inter-organismic relationships are known to confer benefits to plants, including growth promotion and enhanced tolerance to abiotic stresses. In this study, we investigated the mutualistic interactions between three fungal endophytes originally isolated from distinct arid environments and an agronomically relevant crop, Solanum lycopersicum. We demonstrated a significant increase in shoot biomass under drought conditions in co-cultivation with Penicillium chrysogenum isolated from Antarctica, Penicillium minioluteum isolated from the Atacama Desert, Chile, and Serendipita indica isolated from the Thar Desert, India. To elucidate plant gene modules commonly induced by the different endophytes that could explain the observed drought tolerance effect in tomato, a comprehensive transcriptomics analysis was conducted. This analysis led to the identification of a shared gene module in the fungus-infected tomato plants. Within this module, gene network analysis enabled us to identify genes related to abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, ABA transport, auxin signaling, ion homeostasis, proline biosynthesis, and jasmonic acid signaling, providing insights into the molecular basis of drought tolerance commonly mediated by fungal endophytes. Our findings highlight a conserved response in the mutualistic interactions between endophytic fungi isolated from unrelated environments and tomato roots, resulting in improved shoot biomass production under drought stress.
