INDUCTION OF RESISTANCE AGAINST Fusarium equiseti IN Spinacia oleraceae BY Catharanthus roseus AND EXPRESSION ANALYSIS OF STRESS-RELATED GENES

Authors: Shazia Shafique, Sobiya Shafique, Ayesha Mubarak, Rubab Rafique, Muhammad Faiq Irfan
Journal: Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences (JAPS)
ISSN: 1018-7081 (Print), 2309-8694 (Online)
Volume: 36  Issue: 1  Pages: 193-202
Year: 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36899/JAPS.2026.1.0016
URL: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.36899/JAPS.2026.1.0016
Publisher: Pakistan Agricultural Scientists Forum

Abstract:
<p><em><span lang="EN-GB">Spinacia oleraceae L</span></em><span lang="EN-GB">.&nbsp;</span>is a significant food vegetable, and it is vital to enhance its yield against the stress of many devastating pathogens such as&nbsp;<em><span lang="EN-GB">Fusarium&nbsp;</span></em><span lang="EN-GB">spp</span>. The manipulation of plant extracts may mitigate the detrimental effects of disease-causing fungi. The antifungal activity of&nbsp;<em>Catharanthus roseus</em>&nbsp;methanolic extracts was investigated against the&nbsp;<em>Fusarium equiseti</em>&nbsp;pathogen, which causes leaf spot disease in spinach. Moreover, the elicited expression of the stress genes&nbsp;<span lang="EN-GB">of&nbsp;<em>C. roseus</em></span>was also explored.&nbsp;<span lang="EN-GB">Antifungal bioassays revealed that increased concentration of leaf methanolic extracts significantly suppressed pathogen development. However, leaf extract exhibited maximum inhibition (approx. 95%) in fungal biomass production. The methanolic extract of&nbsp;<em>C. roseus</em>&nbsp;utilized in pot trials for biocontrol assays offered superior plant defense against pathogens, delivering the highest level of disease protection. Subsequently, RT-PCR was performed using&nbsp;<em>ETR1</em>,&nbsp;<em>ETR2</em>, and&nbsp;<em>ESR1</em>&nbsp;coding genes to examine variations in the expression profiles of ethylene-related genes under pathogenic stress in&nbsp;<em>C. roseus</em>. The results concluded that either individual or synergistic higher expression of the&nbsp;<em>ETR2</em>&nbsp;gene may suppress the growth of the pathogen, demonstrating its efficacy in controlling the disease.</span></p>

Keywords: Catharanthusroseus, Biocontrol potential, Fusarium equiseti, Methanolic extract, stress genes, RT-PCR, Spinach