Abstract
Rhamnolipids (RLs) are bioactive compounds that have gained a lot of attention for their potential applications in agriculture. However, the exploration of RLs in passion fruit plants remains limited. This study aimed to investigate the role of RLs in passion fruit plants growth and defense responses. Firstly, the results demonstrated that RLs act as plant growth regulators, significantly enhancing the survival rate and root system development of passion fruit seedlings propagated by cutting. Further analyses suggested that RLs may enhance photosynthetic capacity and modulate the accumulation of indoleacetic acid (IAA) and cytokinin (CTK) in passion fruit cuttings, thereby promoting plant growth and development. Additionally, this study revealed that RLs effectively reduced susceptibility to viral pathogen telosma mosaic virus (TeMV) in passion fruit plants compared to distilled water-pretreated controls, resulting in alleviated disease symptoms. Significant up-regulation of antioxidative enzyme activities and reducing substances were observed in RL's-pretreated plants upon TeMV-inoculation compared to distilled water-pretreated ones. Moreover, RLs were found to promote other defense-related signaling pathways upon TeMV-inoculation in passion fruit plants, including salicylic acid (SA) accumulation and expression levels of defense-related genes such as pathogenesis-related gene (PR3), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), transcription factors (TFs) WRKY and NAC. Collectively, these findings underscored the positive roles played by RLs both in promoting growth and eliciting defense responses within passion fruit plants. These results provided valuable insights for designing environment-friendly management strategies for cutting propagation as well as prevention and control measures against viral diseases in passion fruits. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-024-01511-z.