High temperatures associated with climate change may increase the severity of plant diseases. This study investigated the effect of heat shock treatment on host and non-host barley powdery mildew interactions using brassinosteroid (BR) mutants of barley. Brassinosteroids are plant steroid hormones, but so far little is known about their role in plant-fungal interactions. Wild type barley cultivar Bowman and its near-isogenic lines with disturbances in BR biosynthesis or signalling showed high compatibility to barley powdery mildew race A6, while cultivar Delisa and its BR-deficient mutants 522DK and 527DK were fully incompatible with this pathogen (host plant-pathogen interactions). On the other hand, Bowman and its mutants were highly resistant to wheat powdery mildew, representing non-host plant-pathogen interactions. Heat pre-treatment induced shifts in these plant-pathogen interactions towards higher susceptibility. In agreement with the more severe disease symptoms, light microscopy showed a decrease in papillae formation and hypersensitive response, characteristic of incompatible interactions, when heat pre-treatment was applied. Mutant 527DK, but not 522DK, maintained high resistance to barley powdery mildew race A6 despite heat pre-treatment. By 10 days after heat treatment and infection, a noticeable shift became apparent in the chlorophyll a fluorescence and in various leaf reflectance parameters at all genotypes.
Keywords: Blumeria graminis; Blumeria hordei; chlorophyll a fluorescence; leaf spectral reflectance; near-isogenic lines; pathogen inoculation.