Multi-omics of barley Fusarium Head Blight converge on pathogen-triggered biosynthesis of aromatic amino acid derived chemical defense compounds

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a devastating fungal disease of small grain cereals like wheat and barley, causing substantial yield and quality losses each year worldwide. FHB is caused by Fusarium species that produce mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON) that impairs protein biosynthesis. Although defence responses in barley to Fusarium infection have been described at the transcriptional level, it remains unclear to what extent these responses are translated into functional changes at the protein and metabolite levels.

In this study, we employed comprehensive transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics to dissect the defence responses of barley heads during infection with Fusarium culmorum . Our analyses revealed a set of significantly regulated gene-protein pairs linked to biosynthetic pathways that consistently correspond to upregulated defence-related metabolites. These include tryptophan-derived stress metabolites such as tryptamine and serotonin, as well as barley-specific hydroxycinnamylamides, hordatines, and their biosynthetic precursors.

Integrating data from a multiomics approach identifies the upregulation of aromatic amino acid derived secondary metabolism as the most consistent barley response to FHB infection across diverse barley varieties that share barley-typical type II resistance to fungal spreading in the head rachis.