Jania adhaerens Primes Tomato Seed against Soil-Borne Pathogens

Managing soil-borne pathogens is complex due to the restriction of most effective synthetic fungicides for soil treatment. In this study, we showed that seed priming with Jania adhaerens water-soluble polysaccharides (JA WSPs) was successful in protecting tomato plants from Rhizoctonia solani, Pythium ultimum, and Fusarium oxysporum under greenhouse conditions. WSPs were extracted dry thallus by autoclave-assisted method, main functional groups characterized using FT-IR spectroscopy. applied treatment at 0.3, 0.6 1.2 mg/mL doses, each pathogen inoculated singly a growing substrate before seeding/transplant. Overall, increased seedling emergence, reduced disease severity plant development depending on dose. Transcriptional expression genes related phenylpropanoid, chlorogenic acid, SAR ISR pathways, chitinase β-1,3 glucanase activities investigated. Among studied genes, HQT, HCT, PR1 significantly upregulated dose, while all doses PAL PR2 as well activity. These results demonstrated that, besides their growth promotion activity, JA may play protective role triggering defense responses potentially correlated control against pathogens.