FSBSI ARRIAM
Federal State Budget Scientific Institution
All-Russia Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology
All-Russia Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology
- Visually impaired version
Pea is a highly polymorphic species with respect to its responsivity to inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and nodule bacteria. (Zhukov et al., 2017). There are genotypes that are “responsive” to inoculation, which are capable of a significant increase in biomass and seed productivity in response to inoculation, and “non-responsive” genotypes, which do not demonstrate such a phenotype (Shtark et al., 2012). In the framework of collaboration with the group of Doctor of Biological Sciences A.A. Frolov (K.A. Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation) using the proteomic approach, it was established that plants of the “responsive” genotype respond to inoculation by prolonging the seed filling phase, while plants of the “non-responsive” genotype respond by accelerating the completion of seed maturation, which is reflected in an increase in seed mass during inoculation only in the “responsive” genotype (Mamontova et al., 2019). During the implementation of the RSF project 20-16-00107 under the supervision of Dr. O.Yu. Shtark, a transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of the seeds of plants of the "responsive" and "non-responsive" genotypes was carried out to identify the molecular genetic basis for this plant response to inoculation. Also, using metabolomics, the effect of prolonging the life cycle of cv. Finale plants under the influence of the AM fungi was demonstrated (Shtark et al., 2019), and metabolome changes characteristic of mycorrhizal roots of garden pea were described (Shtark et al., 2021).
Within the framework of the RSF project 16-22-00109, under the supervision of Dr. V.A. Zhukov, a detailed study of the proteome and transcriptome of plant roots directly involved in the formation and functioning of symbioses was conducted. As a result, it was established that the responsivity trait is associated with the activation of systemic plant resistance: in the roots of inoculated plants of "responsive" varieties, in contrast to "non-responsive" ones, an increase in gene expression and an increase in abundance of proteins involved in jasmonic acid signaling pathways, as well as antioxidant systems, are observed (Kuzmina et al., 2025; Frolov et al., 2025). This probably makes plants more resistant to infections caused by pathogenic microorganisms. A similar mechanism, called "priming" or "mycorrhiza-induced resistance", has recently been described in other plants, such as grapes, tobacco, barley, tomatoes, etc. The availability of pea varieties that contrast in the degree of expression of the symbiotic responsivity trait (and, consequently, in the capability for "priming") will allow genetic analysis of this trait in the near future and identification of key genes responsible for its expression. Several molecular markers (genetic and transcriptomic) of the symbiotic responsivity trait associated with the activation of systemic plant resistance have already been identified (Afonin et al., 2021c; Zorin et al., 2024). These markers will be used for marker-associated selection of new pea varieties with high responsiveness to inoculation with beneficial microorganisms, which are in demand in modern plant growing (Сулима и др., 2025). The work on identification of new markers of symbiotic responsivity in pea is currently ongoing.
