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Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health

PROTECT: Effects of defense priming on Norway spruce needle microbiome and pest resistance

Finished Last updated: 13.11.2025
End: dec 2024
Start: mar 2022

In correlation with our Research Council of Norway funded project on the effects of Norway spruce defense priming on the root microbiome and resistance, we will also analyse the effects of spruce defense priming and soil microbiota on the spruce needle microbiome and resistance. This project is funded by SNS - Nordic Forest Research.

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Status Concluded
Start - end date 01.03.2022 - 31.12.2024
Project manager Melissa Magerøy
Division Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health
Department Molecular Plant Biology
Partners Viken Skog
Total budget 998000
Funding source Nordic Forest Research

The primary aims of this project are:

1) Determine how defense priming affects the ability of spruce plants to form mutualistic relationships with microbiota and the composition of these microbial communities.

2) Determine how defense priming and microbiota composition affect photosynthetic ability and photosynthetic metabolites.

3) Determine how defense priming and microbiota composition affect spruce production of defensive metabolites.

4) Determine how defense priming and microbiota composition affect spruce plants resistance to pest and pathogens.

Publications in the project

Abstract

Epigenetic modification is an important mechanism that allows plants to rapidly adapt to changes in environment. This modification can provide long-term increased tolerance and resistance to abiotic and biotic stress and may even be transmittable to progeny. Knowledge on how epigenetic memory is established, maintained, triggered, and transmitted in plants with different evolutionary and life histories is important for understanding and utilizing epigenetic adaptation in plant protection. In this symposium, we welcome talks from those that provide insight into the molecular mechanism underlying epigenetic memory to those that present the practical aspects of implementing epigenetic adaptation in the field.

Abstract

Defense priming, the sensitization of inducible defenses, has been extensively studied in annual angiosperms. However, we are just beginning to explore defense priming in woody, long-lived plants. The natural compound methyl jasmonate (MeJA) has been used for over 20 years to study spruce inducible defenses. Recently, it was discovered that MeJA not only directly induces defense, but also primes defense responses in spruce. Metabolite and transcriptional analyses of mature trees treated with MeJA and subsequently wounded showed that while terpenes accumulate at the wound site in a primed manner, terpene biosynthesis genes are directly induced by MeJA. Pathogen resistance (PR) genes, on the other hand, are primed. Sequencing of miRNAs suggests that miRNAs have a regulatory role in MeJA-induced defenses in spruce. Additionally, a detailed transcriptional time course of 2- year-old spruce treated with MeJA indicated that the RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway is involved in the establishment and maintenance of primed defenses. When comparing mechanisms of defense priming in spruce to those in Arabidopsis, it seems that many mechanisms are conserved. However, some aspects, such as jasmonic acid-salicylic acid crosstalk, may be different. Identifying these differences and how they affect forest species is important for practical application of defense priming in forest management.