Isolation and identification of a phosphate deficiency-induced C-glycosylflavonoid that stimulates arbuscular mycorrhiza formation in melon roots.

Melon (Cucumis melo) roots were inoculated with or without the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus Glomus caledonium under low phosphate conditions. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis of the secondary metabolites in butanol extracts from roots revealed that the level of one compound in noninoculated roots showed a significant increase from 30 days postinoculation. No accumulation was observed in mycorrhizal roots and high-phosphate-supplemented roots, indicating that the accumulation of the compound was caused by a phosphate deficiency. The compound was isolated by column chromatography and identified by spectroscopic methods to be a C-glycosylflavone, isovitexin 2''-O-beta-glucoside. The effect of the compound on mycorrhizal colonization in melon roots was examined under low (0.05 mM) and high (2 mM) phosphate conditions. The degree of mycorrhizal colonization in control roots grown under high phosphate conditions (8.8%) was much lower than when grown under low phosphate conditions (22%). The treatment of roots with the compound at concentrations of 20 and 50 microM increased root colonization under both low and high phosphate conditions. In particular, the degrees of mycorrhizal colonization in treated roots grown under high phosphate conditions (25 and 22% at 20 and 50 microM, respectively) were comparable to that in untreated control roots grown under low phosphate conditions (22%). These findings suggest that the phosphate deficiency-induced C-glycosylflavonoid is involved in the regulation of AM fungal colonization in melon roots.