New approaches to control Pseudomonas syringae disease in tomato plants

Abstract

Pests and diseases are important factors to take into account in order to avoid losses in crop production. Nowadays, the search of new enviro-friendly compounds to induce defence mechanisms in plants to fight against plant diseases is a priority. Thus, the goal of this thesis has been to study the action mode of the enviro-friendly inducers of resistance copper-heptagluconate, 1-methyltryptophan (1-MT) and ammonium in tomato-P. syringae pathosystem. In general terms, Cu-heptagluconate induces phenolic compounds, 1-MT induces stomatal closure and affects apoplastic content and bacterial motility, and ammonium nutrition produces a primary metabolism reprogramming. Moreover, the study of changes at root level under nitrate and ammonium sources has been carried out, showing that the addition of nitrate or C compounds to ammonium treatment alleviates its mild toxicity.