Skip to main content
ISMPMI Congress 2025 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Poster

Session: Session 1 Presenting Authors at Posters (Odds)

P-129 - Repurposing the disinfectant benzalkonium chloride as an inducer of plant resistance.

Monday, July 14, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Management of diseases and emerging diseases

The negative impacts of chemical pesticides on human and environmental health necessitate the discovery of sustainable alternatives in crop protection. To reduce time and expenses associated with developing new agrochemicals, we focused on repurposing existing disinfectants, specifically quaternary ammonium compounds (QUATs), and assess their potential to elicit induced resistance (IR) in plants. First, we investigated IR-eliciting capabilities of six QUATs by examining reductions in pathogen proliferation for the fungus Botrytis cinerea and the oomycete Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis in Arabidopsis thaliana. qPCR analysis showed that benzalkonium chloride (BKC) treatment – at 5 µM exhibiting no direct in vitro antifungal activity – significantly reduced pathogen proliferation in the plant by 68% and 34%, respectively. Next, we studied the molecular mechanism(s) underlying BKC-elicited IR (BKC-IR) with comparative transcriptomics. Twenty-four-day-old A. thaliana plants were root-treated with BKC. Root and leaf tissue were harvested 1h, 12h, 24 and 72h post-treatment, while at 96h, tissue was collected from plants that had been infected with B. cinerea 24h prior. Bulk RNA Barcoding sequencing suggested BKC-IR involves ethylene, jasmonic acid and salicylic acid signaling, further confirmed by analysis of BKC-IR in mutant A. thaliana lines. Key differentially expressed genes are currently functionally analyzed to determine their role in BKC-IR.