Allelopathic autotoxicity occurs when a plant releases toxic chemical substances into the environment which inhibits development and growth of the same plant species.Rehmannia glutinosa L.( R.glutinosa ) is one of the most common traditional Chinese medicines,whose productivity and quality,however,are seriously impacted by consecutive monoculture obstacle.Allelopathic autotoxicity is one reason for consecutive monoculture obstacle.In this paper,we reviewed the categories of allelochemicals,the methods of allelochemicals identification,and the mechanisms of allelopathic autotoxicity,which provides clues for further study of the molecular mechanisms of allelopathic autotoxicity and consecutive monoculture obstacle.
Rehmannia glutinosa L.is one of the important medicinal crops in China.Continuous cropping obstacle severely restricts the yield and quality of R.glutinosa,but its molecular mechanism is still unclear.In this study,with widely-planted "Wen 85-5" as an experiment material,based on the digital gene expression profiling (DGE) data of previous five stress treatments (continuous cropping,phenolic acid,salt,drought and waterlogging) and the first cropping and continuous cropping treatments of R.glutinosa in five different periods (seedling period,elongation period,early expanding period,middle expanding period and later expanding period),80 candidate genes (|log 2 ratio|≥1,FDR <0.001) specifically responding to continuous cropping obstacle in R.glutinosa were screened.Functional analysis revealed that the differentially expressed genes were involved in the secretion and endocytosis of root cells,which may suggest that the recognition and absorption of allelopathic autotoxins by the roots of R.glutinosa is an important factor that restricts the development of roots in continuous cropping of R.glutinosa.In order to accurately lock genes specifically responding to continuous cropping obstacle in R.glutinosa,continuous cropping soil extract and ferulic acid and p-hydroxybenzonic acid were used to treat aseptic plantlets of R.glutinosa,respectively,and it was confirmed through qRT-PCR that the expression levels of some genes under phenolic acid treatment changed more severely than that under the continuous cropping soil extract treatment,and four key genes involved in the response of R.glutinosa to continuous cropping were finally locked.This study lays a foundation for further exploration of the molecular mechanism of continuous cropping obstacle.
