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The current exponential growth of the world population demands a new set of solutions to keep pushing the boundaries of agricultural systems in a finite world so that global food security can be assured while respecting the environmental fundaments which foster the cultivation of crops in the long run. One particular challenge lies in finding alternative ways to protect plant species against pathogenic organisms limiting their growth potential. Priming is a promising approach to improve the ability of plants to fend of pathogens and thus restrict yield reduction due to disease. It implies the premature exposure of plants to universal molecules associated with the presence of a stressor, thereby preparing defense responses for future threats. Still, optimization and overall understanding of the underlying physiological changes that priming induces are critical to achieving broad-spectrum resistance and successful integration of priming in high-performance, sustainable agriculture. We demonstrated that the exogenous application of inulin- and levan-type fructans (5 g∙L-1) to the foliage of Arabidopsis thaliana limits the extent of lesion development after infection with Botrytis cinerea. The improved defense responses when challenged could partially be attributed to the increased efficiency of reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling and scavenging. The oxidative burst, which is a characteristic of plant immunity, develops faster compared to negative controls since the accumulation of ROS occurs roughly twice as fast when exposed to the flagellin (flg22) immune elicitor. Besides a faster ROS build-up, the burst profile in samples from plants pretreated with fructan compounds exhibit a smaller width, which points to a quicker recovery from the surge in ROS by more competent scavenging systems. In the days following exposure to fructan priming agents, alterations in the activity of antioxidant enzymes occur, which suggests that the transition to the primed state is mediated by ROS signaling as well. More specifically, the suppression of guaiacol peroxidase possibly assists the intentional generation of ROS for signaling purposes after fructan priming. In contrast, catalase is more active and likely exerts a free radical scavenging function to ensure that the fructan-induced redox changes are transient. The enhanced resilience to infection remained absent when priming with flavonoids (100 µM) naturally occurring in plant tissues. Both quercetin and naringenin failed to reduce lesion development after infection with B. cinerea. Moreover, hydrogen peroxide measurements and catalase activity assays showed no signs of ROS signaling directed at boosting the innate immunity of the test plants.

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Popularizing summary Climate change poses a threat to food security and it is therefore necessary to study the impacts of future climate scenarios on plants. However, plants do not work alone and interact with communities of soil microorganisms to obtain vital soil nutrients as well as protect against other disease-causing microorganisms. There are many different types of soil microorganisms which can be broadly categorized based on their relationship which the plant. Epiphytes are microorganisms that live on the surface of plant tissues whereas endophytes are microorganisms that live within plant tissues. There are also free-living soil microorganisms that are found in the soil surrounding a plant’s root system. An area of interest for researchers is to see if the effects of climate change can have an impact on the composition of soil microbial communities. To do this, researchers make use of controlled environmental facilities known as ecotrons to simulate past, present, and even proposed future climate conditions. The aim of this study was to see if different climate scenarios could have an effect on the composition of soil microorganism communities associated with three different grass species. The three grass species were taken from ecotrons to compare the effects of recent and current climate conditions to future climate conditions on the soil microorganism communities associated with each plant. The three plant species were categorized based on their capacity to accumulate fructans, a type of carbohydrate associated with plant stress resistance, and the epiphyte, endophyte and free-living soil communities of these grass species were analysed. One plant was a strong fructan accumulator, one was a weak fructan accumulator and one was not capable of accumulating fructans. There are many different types of fructans and they can also be made by some microorganisms. It was also the aim of the researchers to discover the identity of a subset of these microorganisms and to test to see if these microorganisms could show evidence for producing fructans or being capable of consuming a type of fructan known as levan. The results of the experiment found evidence that different climate scenarios can impact the composition of soil microorganisms for some plants. For example, a larger number of fructan consuming endophytes were found to be associated with the strong fructan accumulator under the future climate conditions compared to the current climate conditions. In addition, a number of microorganisms were identified and most were found to show evidence for fructan production and consumption. However, whether there is a higher occurrence of these types of microorganisms under one climate scenario over another and under one grass species over another remains to be answered. It is hoped that future experiments will increase our understanding of the changes that can occur in the soil communities of plants as a result of climate change and that this knowledge will help inform future agricultural and land use decisions.