Enzyme activity and population genetic structure analysis in wheat associated with resistance to Bipolaris sorokiniana-common root rot diseases

Common root rot disease (CRR) caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana (Sacc.) (Pleosporaceae), is an important fungal disease of wheat, Triticum aestivum (Poaceae), causing considerable yield losses globally. Incorporating genetic resistance in cultivated crops is considered the most efficient and sustainable solution to counter root rot diseases. Moreover, resistance to CCR is quantitative in nature, and thus the mechanism is poorly understood. To this aim, we analyzed the activities of defense-related enzymes; peroxidase (POX), superoxide dismutase (SOD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), catalase (CAT), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), β-1,3-glucanase (GLU) and chitinase (CHI), as well as total phenol content (TPC) to CRR on the three known resistant wheat ‘Alvand’ and ‘Bam’, ‘Mehregan’ at different time points (wpi) following CRR pathogen, B. sorokiniana inoculation. Of which, were selected out of 33 wheat cultivars previously screened for resistance to CRR. We also analyzed the genetic variability of the entire germplasm, 33 wheat cultivars using seven simple sequence repeat (SSR) primer pairs. The activity of antioxidant enzymes was increased in the related resistant genotypes. Of which, ‘Bam’ had the highest increase in PPO, and GLU activities, followed by ‘Alvand’ in SOD, PAL, and CHI significantly. Whereas, ‘Mehregan’ showed the highest level of TPC, POX, and CAT activities. In addition, five out of seven used SSR primers produced a total of 20 polymorphic bands, of which the number of alleles in each gene locus varied within 3–7 bands. The polymorphism information content (PIC) value also ranged from 0.44 to 0.81, with the mean of 0.65, Shannon Information Index (I) between 0.29 and 0.63 with an average of 0.47 per locus, and Nei's gene diversity (h) value varied from 0.16 to 0.44 with an average of 0.32. The average number of effective alleles was 1.52, ranging between 1.21 and 1.8. The gene locus Xgwm 140 showed the highest diversity in the population genetic structure, which explains the ability of the primers to resolve the assayed germplasm. Thus, resistance to CRR in wheat was mainly related to the enhancement of antioxidant enzymes, although the specific metabolic pathways require further study. This study presents new insights for understanding resistance mechanisms of the selected wheat cultivars to CRR, thus improving wheat yield in the future.