The environmental stress, biotic as well as abiotic, is the main cause of decreased growth and crop production. One of the stress-causing agents in plants are parasitic nematodes responsible for crop loss. Jasmonic acid (JA) is recognized as one of signaling molecules in defense-related responses in plants, however, its role under nematode infestation is unclear. Therefore, the present study was planned to traverse the role of JA in boosting the activities of antioxidative enzymes in tomato seedlings during nematode inoculation. Application of JA declined oxidative damage by decreasing O2•- content, nuclear and membrane damage under nematode stress. JA treatment elevated the activities of SOD, POD, CAT, APOX, DHAR, GPOX, GR, and PPO in nematode-infested seedlings. Seed soaking treatment of JA upregulated the expression of SOD, POD, CAT, and GPOX under nematode stress. Various amino acids were found in tomato seedlings and higher content of aspartic acid, histidine, asparagine, glutamine, glutamic acid, glycine, threonine, lysine, arginine, B-alanine, GABA, phenylalanine, proline, and ornithine was observed in seeds soaked with JA (100 nM) treatment during nematode inoculation. The results suggest an indispensable role of JA in basal defense response in plants during nematode stress.
Keywords: Jasmonic acid; amino acid profiling; antioxidant enzyme activity; oxidative stress; root knot nematode; tomato.