Regulation of resistance and susceptibility in wheat–powdery mildew pathosystem with exogenous cytokinins

Dose–response relationship between resistance of wheat seedlings (Triticum aestivum, cultivar Zarya) to Erysiphe graminis f. sp. tritici Marchal. (Syn. Blumeria graminis), a causal organism of wheat powdery mildew and exogenous zeatin has been investigated. Two-week-old seedlings were inoculated with the pathogen. Zeatin or zeatinriboside were added to the nutrient solution immediately after inoculation. The dose–response curve of cytokinin in the most cases was multiphasic, with peaks of increased susceptibility occurring at 0.25–1.5 and 1.5–9 μM cytokinin, separated by a region of increased resistance at 0.5–3 μM cytokinin. The change in mineral nutrition or simultaneous treatment with thidiazuron revealed alterations of the dose–response curve ranging from a curve with maximum of resistance to a curve with maximum of susceptibility. Both multiphase nature of dose–response and its variability were proposed as possible explanations for earlier observed discrepancies in experimental data on modification of disease resistance by cytokinins. A mathematical model for two metabolic processes with substrate inhibition connected in-series was suggested to explain the multiphase dose–response. In this model, the product of the first reaction was used as substrate for the second reaction. Numerical experiments showed the changes in the shape of dose–response curve with changes in parameters dependent of cytokinin metabolism.