Nicotinamide Effectively Suppresses Fusarium Head Blight in Wheat Plants

Pyridine nucleotides such as a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) are known as plant defense activators. We previously reported that nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) enhanced disease resistance against fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum in barley and Arabidopsis. In this study, we reveal that the pretreatment of nicotinamide (NIM), which does not contain nucleotides, effectively suppresses disease development of Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in wheat plants. Correspondingly, deoxynivalenol (DON) mycotoxin accumulation was also significantly decreased by NIM pretreatment. A metabolome analysis showed that several antioxidant and antifungal compounds such as trigonelline were significantly accumulated in the NIM-pretreated spikes after inoculation of F. graminearum. In addition, some metabolites involved in the DNA hypomethylation were accumulated in the NIM-pretreated spikes. On the other hand, fungal metabolites DON and ergosterol peroxide were significantly reduced by the NIM pretreatment. Since NIM is relative stable and inexpensive compared with NMN and NAD, it may be more useful for the control of symptoms of FHB and DON accumulation in wheat and other crops.