{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,23]],"date-time":"2026-02-23T11:13:47Z","timestamp":1771845227746,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,10]],"date-time":"2022-08-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1660089600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Progetti di Ricerca @CNR: ANTI-CoV"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are generally recognized to induce plant growth and prime plants against soil-borne parasites, such as plant parasitic nematodes. However, the effectiveness of commercial formulates containing AMF has been questioned. Increasing amounts per plant of one commercial AMF-containing formulate, reported in the text as Myco, were used to detect the effects on growth of tomato plants and the resistance induced against root-knot nematodes (RKNs) The doses used per plant (0.5, 1.0, 2.0 g, reported as Myco1, Myco2, Myco3, respectively) were soil-drenched to growing potted plants; the effects of such treatments were analyzed both in plants not inoculated or inoculated by Meloidogyne incognita juveniles. Consistent increases in plant weight were apparent as soon as 7 days only after Myco2 treatments. Moreover, only treatments with Myco2 induced a consistent repression of the nematode infection observed in untreated plants. Conversely, treatments with Myco1 and Myco3 did not produce such an early growth improvement; some plant weight increase was observable only at 28 dpt. Accordingly, such Myco doses did not restrict the level of infestation observed in untreated plants. Control of infection was dependent on the dose of Myco provided to plants five days before nematode inoculation. About one month after all Myco treatments, several areas of roots were found to be colonized by AMF, although in Myco2-treated plants, three genes involved in the AMF colonization process (SlCCaMK, SlLYK9, and SlLYK13) were found to be over-expressed already at 7 dpt; over-expression was generally less consistent at 14 and 21 dpt. The expressions of two key genes of plant defense, the hypersensitive cell death inducer PR4b gene and the glutathione peroxidase-encoding GPX gene, were monitored in roots of Myco2-treated plants 3 and 7 days after nematode inoculation. PR4b was over-expressed and GPX was silenced in treated plants with respect to untreated plants. The repressive effect of Myco2 treatment against RKN infection was completely abolished when Myco2 suspensions were autoclaved to sterilization or treated with the potent anti-fungal agent amphotericin B, thus indicating that the biological control agents contained in the commercial formulate were living fungi.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms23168920","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,10]],"date-time":"2022-08-10T09:42:56Z","timestamp":1660124576000},"page":"8920","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Tomato Root Colonization by Exogenously Inoculated Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Induces Resistance against Root-Knot Nematodes in a Dose-Dependent Manner"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2472-1289","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sergio","family":"Molinari","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Agricultural and Food Sciences, Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Bari Unit, CNR, 70126 Bari, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Masoud","family":"Akbarimotlagh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Agricultural and Food Sciences, Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Bari Unit, CNR, 70126 Bari, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-111, Iran"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Paola","family":"Leonetti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Agricultural and Food Sciences, Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Bari Unit, CNR, 70126 Bari, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"328","DOI":"10.1038\/nature22009","article-title":"Plant signalling in symbiosis and immunity","volume":"543","author":"Zipfel","year":"2017","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"El-Sappah, A.H., Islam, M.M., El-Awady, H.H., Yan, S., Qi, S., Liu, J., Cheng, G.-T., and Liang, Y. (2019). Tomato natural resistance genes in controlling the root-knot nematode. Genes, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/genes10110925"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"221","DOI":"10.1016\/bs.abr.2014.12.007","article-title":"Gene silencing in nematode feeding sites","volume":"73","author":"Hewezi","year":"2015","journal-title":"Adv. Bot. Res."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Molinari, S., and Leonetti, P. (2019). Bio-control agents activate plant immune response and prime susceptible tomato against root-knot nematodes. PLoS ONE, 14.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0213230"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"888","DOI":"10.1002\/ps.4063","article-title":"Systemic acquired resistance activation in Solanaceous crops as a management strategy against root-knot nematodes","volume":"72","author":"Molinari","year":"2016","journal-title":"Pest Manag. Sci."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1354","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cropro.2010.07.012","article-title":"Induction of resistance to root-knot nematodes by SAR elicitors in tomato","volume":"29","author":"Molinari","year":"2010","journal-title":"Crop Prot."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"255","DOI":"10.1111\/mpp.12085","article-title":"Expression of tomato salicylic acid (SA)-responsive pathogenesis-related genes in Mi-1-mediated and SA-induced resistance to root-knot nematodes","volume":"15","author":"Molinari","year":"2014","journal-title":"Mol. Plant Pathol."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"393","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pbi.2007.05.004","article-title":"Unravelling mycorrhiza-induced resistance","volume":"10","author":"Pozo","year":"2007","journal-title":"Curr. Opin. Plant Biol."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1559","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2015.01559","article-title":"Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi as natural biofertilizer: Let\u2019s benefit from past successes","volume":"6","author":"Berruti","year":"2016","journal-title":"Front. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"992","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2020.00992","article-title":"Biological control of plant-parasitic nematodes by filamentous fungi inducers of resistance: Trichoderma, Mycorrhizal and Endophytic fungi","volume":"11","author":"Poveda","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"45","DOI":"10.1016\/j.soilbio.2013.01.013","article-title":"Mycorrhiza-induced resistance against the root\u2013knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita involves priming of defense gene responses in tomato","volume":"60","author":"Vos","year":"2013","journal-title":"Soil Biol. Biochem."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1280","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2015.01280","article-title":"Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for the biocontrol of plant-parasitic nematodes: A review of the mechanisms involved","volume":"6","author":"Schouteden","year":"2015","journal-title":"Front. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"533","DOI":"10.1890\/1540-9295(2005)003[0533:MMAOMF]2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Microbe management: Application of mycorrhizal fungi in sustainable agriculture","volume":"3","author":"Hart","year":"2005","journal-title":"Front Ecol. Environ."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Molinari, S. (2021). Factors determining the variability of performance of bio-control agents against root-knot nematodes in vegetable plants. Agronomy, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/agronomy11081602"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"184","DOI":"10.1111\/nph.13753","article-title":"The LysM receptor-like kinase SlLYK10 regulates the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in tomato","volume":"210","author":"Buendia","year":"2016","journal-title":"New Phytol."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"671","DOI":"10.1094\/MPMI-08-10-0183","article-title":"Use of a secretion trap screen in pepper following Phytophthora capsici infection reveals novel functions of secreted plant proteins in modulating cell death","volume":"24","author":"Yeom","year":"2011","journal-title":"Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2749","DOI":"10.1105\/tpc.106.044230","article-title":"An Arabidopsis glutathione peroxidase functions as both a redox transducer and a scavenger in abscisic acid and drought stress responses","volume":"18","author":"Miao","year":"2006","journal-title":"Plant Cell"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"521","DOI":"10.1111\/tpj.12400","article-title":"Pathogenesis-related protein 4b interacts with leucine-rich repeat protein 1 to suppress PR4b-triggered cell death and defense response in pepper","volume":"77","author":"Hwang","year":"2014","journal-title":"Plant J."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/S0580-9517(08)70084-9","article-title":"Methods for the study of the population biology of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi","volume":"Volume 24","author":"Norris","year":"1992","journal-title":"Methods in Microbiology"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"149","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00000104","article-title":"The screening and selection of inoculant arbuscular-mychorrizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi","volume":"159","author":"Dodd","year":"1994","journal-title":"Plant Soil"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"295","DOI":"10.1007\/PL00009998","article-title":"Field microplot performance of the peach-almond hybrid GF-677 after inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in a replant soil infested with root-knot nematodes","volume":"10","author":"Calvet","year":"2001","journal-title":"Mycorrhiza"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"651","DOI":"10.1081\/PLN-200052639","article-title":"Evaluation of compost leachates for plant growth in hydroponic culture","volume":"28","author":"Jarecki","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Plant Nutr."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"158","DOI":"10.1016\/S0007-1536(70)80110-3","article-title":"Improved procedures for clearing roots and staining parasitic and vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for rapid assessment of infection","volume":"55","author":"Phillips","year":"1970","journal-title":"Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"402","DOI":"10.1006\/meth.2001.1262","article-title":"Analysis of relative gene expression data using real-time quantitative PCR and the 2\u2212\u2206\u2206Ct method","volume":"25","author":"Livak","year":"2001","journal-title":"Methods"}],"container-title":["International Journal of Molecular Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1422-0067\/23\/16\/8920\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T00:06:47Z","timestamp":1760141207000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1422-0067\/23\/16\/8920"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,10]]},"references-count":24,"journal-issue":{"issue":"16","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8]]}},"alternative-id":["ijms23168920"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ijms23168920","relation":{},"ISSN":["1422-0067"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1422-0067","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,10]]}}}