Oxylipin profiling in pathogen-infected potato leaves

Plants respond to pathogen attack with a multicomponent defense response. Synthesis of oxylipins via the lipoxygenase (LOX) pathway appears to be an important factor for establishment of resistance in a number of pathosystems. In potato cells, pathogen-derived elicitors preferentially stimulate the 9-LOX-dependent metabolism of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Here we show by oxylipin profiling that potato plants react to pathogen infection with increases in the amounts of the 9-LOX-derived 9,10,11- and 9,12,13-trihydroxy derivatives of linolenic acid (LnA), the divinyl ethers colnelenic acid (CnA) and colneleic acid (CA) as well as 9-hydroxy linolenic acid. Accumulation of these compounds is faster and more pronounced during the interaction of potato with the phytopathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola, which does not lead to disease, compared to the infection of potato with Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight disease. Jasmonic acid (JA), a 13-LOX-derived oxylipin, accumulates in potato leaves after infiltration with P. syringae pv. maculicola, but not after infection with P. infestans.