Plant secondary metabolites are well known for their biological functions in defending against pathogenic microorganisms. Tea saponin (TS), one type of secondary metabolite of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), has been shown to be a valuable botanical pesticide. However, its antifungal activity in controlling the fungi Valsa mali, Botryosphaeria dothidea, and Alternaria alternata, which induce major diseases in apple (Malus domestica), has not been determined. In this study, we first determined that TS has higher inhibitory activity than catechins against the three types of fungi. We further utilized in vitro and in vivo assays to confirm that TS showed high antifungal activity against the three types of fungi, especially for V. mali and B. dothidea. In the in vivo assay, application of a 0.5% TS solution was able to restrain the fungus-induced necrotic area in detached apple leaves efficiently. Moreover, a greenhouse infection assay also confirmed that TS treatment significantly inhibited V. mali infection in leaves of apple seedlings. In addition, TS treatment activated plant immune responses by decreasing accumulation of reactive oxygen species and promoting the activity of pathogenesis-related proteins, including chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase. This indicated that TS might serve as a plant defense inducer to activate innate immunity to fight against fungal pathogen invasion. Therefore, our data indicated that TS might restrain fungal infection in two ways, by directly inhibiting the growth of fungi and by activating plant innate defense responses as a plant defense inducer.
Keywords: PR proteins; antifungal activity; apple-disease-inducing fungi; plant defense response; reactive oxygen species; tea saponin.