The volatile organic compounds ofFloccularia luteovirensmodulate plant growth and metabolism inArabidopsis thaliana

Aims The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by soil microbes modulated plant growth and development.Floccularia luteovirens, an edible mushroom, is beneficial to the growth of alpine meadow plants on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. We aimed to elucidate the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying the mushroom fungal VOC-mediated plant growth and development. Methods Here, we investigated the effects of VOCs produced byF. luteovirenson the root system development and seedling growth by integrating physiology, genetics, transcriptome and metabolome analysis using 1/2 MS medium-grownArabidopsis thalianaseedlings. Results Treatment withF. luteovirensVOCs reduce primary root growth by aggravating auxin accumulation through the repression of the abundance of auxin efflux carrier PIN-FORMED 2 (PIN2) protein, whereas it increases the lateral root number ofA. thalianaseedlings. In addition to modulating root system architecture, treatment withF. luteovirensVOCs markedly increased aboveground growth. The transcriptome and metabolome analyses further supported the notion thatF. luteovirensVOCs modulate plant growth and development through the induction of carbon/nitrogen metabolism and antioxidant defense while repressing several secondary metabolism and amino acid catabolism pathways. Conclusions These results suggested that application ofF. luteovirensVOCs promote growth by inducing changes in root system architecture through auxin pathway and regulating metabolism in plants.