International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology

Vol-10, Issue-3; May-Jun, 2025

Peer-Reviewed International Journal
Journal Home Page Available: https://ijeab.com/
Journal DOI: 10.22161/ijeab

Biochemical Analysis of Tomato Plants Grafted onto Wild

Brinjal Rootstocks under Fusarium-Nematode Infestation
Kalpana Yadav*1, Indu Arora1, Anil Kumar2, Sanjay Kumar1, Vikash Kumar1, Kapil3 and
Pooja Pahal1
1Department of Vegetable Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004, India
2Department of Nematology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004, India
3Department of Entomology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004, India

*Corresponding author

Received: 15 May 2025; Received in revised form: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 17 Jun 2025; Available online: 22 Jun 2025
©2025 The Author(s). Published by Infogain Publication. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Abstract— Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cultivation is significantly constrained by the concurrent
incidence of Fusarium oxysporum and Meloidogyne incognita, resulting in substantial yield losses. Grafting
onto resistant rootstocks has emerged as an effective strategy to enhance resistance against these soil-borne
pathogens. The present study investigated the biochemical responses of tomato plants grafted onto wild
brinjal rootstocks under Fusarium-nematode infested conditions. Among several rootstocks screened in the
screenhouse, brinjal roostock RB5 (Solanum torvum) and RB3 (a wild brinjal genotype) were identified as
the most effective. RB5 exhibited the highest phenol content (0.420 mg/g FW in roots; 0.349 mg/g FW in
stems) and peroxidase activity (2.19 µmol/min/g FW in roots; 1.47 µmol/min/g FW in stems). These
biochemical substances are associated with enhanced structural defense and regulation of oxidative stress,
contributing to increased resistance. Grafting tomato plants onto resistant wild rootstocks, particularly S.
torvum (RB5), significantly strengthens biochemical defense mechanisms under Fusarium–nematode stress.
This approach offers a sustainable, eco-friendly alternative to chemical control, improving plant resilience
and supporting higher productivity in Fusarium-nematode infested soils.
Keywords— Biochemical defense, Grafting, Rootstock, Solanum lycopersicum

I. INTRODUCTION Rootstocks such as brinjal (Solanum melongena) and

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most resistant tomato cultivars have shown potential in
widely cultivated vegetable crops globally, valued for its mitigating the adverse effects of Fusarium-nematode
nutritional and economic significance. However, its complexes. Understanding the biochemical changes
productivity is severely constrained by soil-borne induced in grafted plants under such stress is critical for
pathogens, particularly Fusarium oxysporum and root-knot elucidating resistance mechanisms. In this study, the
nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.), which often occur defense responses and stress tolerance of grafted and non-
simultaneously, leading to synergistic detrimental effects on grafted plants were assessed through the analysis of key
plant health and yield (Meshram and Adhikari, 2024). biochemical parameters: total phenol content (mg/g fresh
These biotic stresses induce complex physiological and weight) and peroxidase activity (µmol) in both roots and
biochemical responses in plants, affecting their defense shoots. These specific substances were chosen due to their
mechanisms and oxidative stress regulation. Grafting has pivotal and well-established roles in mediating plant
emerged as an effective strategy to enhance tolerance defense mechanisms and serving as reliable indicators of
against soil-borne pathogens by combining disease-resistant resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses.The findings
rootstocks with high-yielding scions (Phani et al., 2024). are expected to contribute to the development of grafting-

ISSN: 2456-1878 (Int. J. Environ. Agric. Biotech.)

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Yadav et al. Biochemical Analysis of Tomato Plants Grafted onto Wild Brinjal Rootstocks under Fusarium-Nematode
Infestation

based strategies for sustainable tomato production in maintained under infested conditions of Fusarium
Fusarium-nematode infested soils. oxysporum and Meloidogyne incognita. The experimental
setup followed a Completely Randomized Design (CRD)
with four replications per treatment. For data collection, five
II. MATERIAL AND METHODS
tomato plants were randomly selected from each
The present study was conducted in the screen-house of the replication. Biochemical analyses, including total phenol
Department of Nematology, CCS Haryana Agricultural content and peroxidase activity in both roots and shoots,
University, Hisar. Two resistant rootstock genotypes, RB3 were performed using standard protocols. The total phenol
(wild) and RB5 (Solanum torvum) were utilised for grafting. content (mg/g fresh weight) of the roots showing resistant
Three tomato cultivars, namely Pusa Ruby (S1), Punjab reaction was estimated by the method of Swain and Hillis
Gaurav (S2), and a locally grown polyhouse variety (S3), (1959) and Peroxidase activity (U/min/g FW) was assayed
were selected as scions. These were grafted onto the as per the method of Machly (1954). Data were statistically
rootstocks to develop six graft combinations: RB3 × S1, RB3 analyzed using two-factor ANOVA with the aid of
× S2, RB3 × S3, RB5 × S1, RB5 × S2, and RB5 × S3. All OPSTAT software.
treatments, including grafted and non-grafted plants, were

Brinjal Rootstock RB5 Brinjal Rootstock RB3

Fig. 1: Resistant rootstocks of brinjal selected from screening against fusarium nematode complex for tomato grafting

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION content in roots and stems.

In this study, biochemical mechanisms in roots and stems of The higher total phenol content observed in grafted
grafted and non-grafted plants were established by analysing plants may help control root-knot nematode and fusarium
total phenol content and enzymes, viz., peroxidases under wilt under infested conditions. Bajaj et al. (1983) stated that
fusarium-nematode infested conditions. Phenolic compounds total phenol content in roots and stems indicated the level
play a major role in the defense mechanism of plants against of resistance against root-knot nematodes in tomato. Total
various infectious agents. The present study indicated that the phenol content in roots also showed a negative association
rootstocks had a significant effect on total phenol content in with root-knot index, as well as number of galls and number
roots and stems (mg/g FW). Among the evaluated of egg masses per root system. Mahajan et al. (1985) also
rootstocks, RB5 consistently demonstrated the highest reported the nematicidal activity of phenolic compounds.
phenol accumulation, recording 0.420 mg/g FW in roots The post-infection increases in phenols, accumulating at
(Table 1) and 0.349 mg/g FW in scion stems (Table 2). infection sites, likely contribute to the plant's defense
Conversely, the non-grafted scions (R0) exhibited the mechanism by disrupting pathogen metabolic activities,
lowest phenol content, with values of 0.311 mg/g FW in leading to increased root length (Gopinatha et al., 2002).
roots (Table 1) and 0.247 mg/g FW in scion stems (Table Naik et al. (2024) similarly reported an accumulation of
2). However, all the scions and interaction between higher phenolics in plants subjected to stress conditions,
rootstocks and scions had non-significant effect on phenol reinforcing the role of these compounds in plant defense.

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Yadav et al. Biochemical Analysis of Tomato Plants Grafted onto Wild Brinjal Rootstocks under Fusarium-Nematode
Infestation

Table 1: Effect of rootstocks, scions and their interactions on total phenol content in roots (mg/g fresh weight) under
fusarium-nematode infested conditions
Scion (B) Pusa Ruby Punjab Gaurav Polyhouse LC Mean A
Rootstock (A) (S1) (S2) (S3)
RB5 0.413 0.426 0.420 0.420
RB3 0.396 0.405 0.401 0.401
*R0 0.301 0.323 0.308 0.311
Mean B 0.370 0.385 0.376
CD at 5% level of significance
Factor A (treatment)= 0.02
Factor B (rootstock)= NS
Factor A×B= NS
*Non-grafted scions

Table 2: Effect of rootstocks, scions and their interactions on total phenol content in scion Stems (mg/g fresh weight) under
fusarium-nematode infested conditions
Scion (B) Pusa Ruby Punjab Gaurav Polyhouse LC Mean A
Rootstock (A) (S1) (S2) (S3)
RB5 0.345 0.353 0.349 0.349
RB3 0.310 0.324 0.322 0.319
*R0 0.243 0.251 0.246 0.247
Mean B 0.299 0.309 0.306
CD at 5% level of significance
Factor A (treatment)= 0.032
Factor B (rootstock)= NS
Factor A×B= NS
*Non-grafted scions

The enzyme peroxidase is intrinsically linked to (R0) exhibited the minimum activity of 1.01 µmol in roots
plant defense mechanism by catalyzing the condensation of (Table 3) and at 0.71 µmol in stems (Table 4). Consistent
phenolic compounds into lignin. The current model with phenol content, peroxidase activity varied non-
suggests that peroxidase aids in defense by converting significantly among scions and their interactions with
phenolic monomers from the phenylpropanoid pathway into rootstocks. Peroxidase activity was found to be higher in all
insoluble polymers (Robb et al, 1991). It has been resistant rootstocks compared to the susceptible ones, with
demonstrated that peroxidase plays an important, early and RB5 showing the maximum levels. These observations align
specific role in hypersensitive containment of the pathogen with earlier studies reporting the role of peroxidase in
(Peng and Kuc, 1992). Estimation of peroxidase activity in induced systemic resistance across plant species
the present study indicates that all the resistant rootstocks (Hammerschmidt et al., 1982; Dalisay and Kuc, 1995;
possessed higher peroxidase activity than the susceptible Ramamoorthy and Samiyappan, 2001). Similar findings
ones. Specifically, rootstock RB5 showed the highest were also reported by Rani et al. (2008) and Sundhariaya
peroxidase activity in roots, i.e., 2.19 µmol (Table 3) and (2008) in tomato, and Sherly (2010) in Solanum species.
stems, i.e., 1.47 µmol (Table 4), whereas non-grafted scions

ISSN: 2456-1878 (Int. J. Environ. Agric. Biotech.)

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Yadav et al. Biochemical Analysis of Tomato Plants Grafted onto Wild Brinjal Rootstocks under Fusarium-Nematode
Infestation

Table 3: Effect of rootstocks, scions and their interactions on peroxidases (U/min/g FW) in roots under fusarium-nematode
infested conditions
Scion (B) Pusa Ruby Punjab Gaurav Polyhouse LC Mean A
Rootstock (A) (S1) (S2) (S3)
RB5 2.13 2.26 2.19 2.19
RB3 1.91 1.97 1.95 1.94
*R0 0.98 1.05 1.01 1.01
Mean B 1.67 1.76 1.71
CD at 5% level of significance
Factor A (rootstock)= 0.11
Factor B (scion)= NS
Factor A×B= NS
*Non-grafted scions

Table 4: Effect of rootstocks, scions and their interactions on peroxidases (U/min/g FW) in scion Stems under fusarium-
nematode infested conditions
Scion (B) Pusa Ruby Punjab Gaurav Polyhouse LC Mean A
Rootstock (A) (S1) (S2) (S3)
RB5 1.44 1.52 1.46 1.47
RB3 1.10 1.26 1.14 1.16
*R0 0.67 0.75 0.71 0.71
Mean B 1.07 1.17 1.10
CD at 5% level of significance
Factor A (rootstock)= 0.09
Factor B (scion)= NS
Factor A×B= NS
*Non-grafted scions

IV. CONCLUSION V. AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTION

This biochemical analysis revealed that grafting Conceptualization of research (IA and KY); Designing of
tomato plants onto resistant wild rootstocks particularly the experiments (IA and KY); Contribution of experimental
with brinjal rootstocks RB5, induced elevated levels of total materials (IA and KY); Execution of field/lab experiments
phenol content and increased activity of crucial defense and data collection (KY and AK); Analysis of data and
enzymes such as peroxidases. These observed biochemical interpretation (KY, K, VK and PP); Preparation of the
alterations underscore the enhanced intrinsic defense manuscript (KY, SK and PP)
mechanisms and improved physiological performance of
grafted plants, leading to robust resistance against the
VI. DECLARATION
devastating Fusarium-nematode complex under infested
conditions. Consequently, this sustainable grafting strategy The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
offers a viable and eco-friendly approach to mitigate soil-
borne pathogen pressures, reduce dependency on chemical
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