Exogenous Fatty Acid Hydroperoxide Perception as Elicitor Is Related to
Modulation of Plant Plasma Membrane Structure
Abstract
Fatty acid hydroperoxides (HPOs) are amphiphilic molecules naturally
produced by plants in stressed conditions and involved in plant immunity
as signalling molecules. Although some studies report their potential
use as exogenous biocontrol agents for plant protection, evaluation of
their efficiency in planta is lacking and no information is available
about their mechanism of action. In this work, the potential of two HPO
forms, 13-HPOD and 13-HPOT, as plant defence elicitors and the
underlying mechanism of action are investigated. Both HPOs trigger
Arabidopsis innate immunity. They increase plant resistance to the
pathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea and activate early immunity-related
defence responses, like ROS production. As our previous study has
suggested that HPOs are able to interact with the plant plasma membrane
(PPM) lipid fraction, we have further investigated the effects of HPOs
on biomimetic PPM structure using complementary biophysics tools.
Results show that HPO insertion into PPM impacts its global structure
without solubilizing it. 13-HPOT, with an additional double bond
compared to 13-HPOD, exerts a higher effect by fluidifying and reducing
the thickness of the bilayer. Correlation between biological assays and
biophysical analysis suggests that lipid amphiphilic elicitors that
directly act on membrane lipids might trigger early plant defence
events.