RT Journal Article T1 Increase in cytotoxic lignans production after smut infection in sugar cane plants A1 Sánchez-Elordi, Elena A1 Sterling, Roberto M. A1 Santiago, Rocío A1 Armas, Roberto de A1 Vicente Córdoba, Carlos A1 Legaz González, María Estrella AB Smut infection alters the transcription of dirigent proteins (DIR) by sugarcane plants. Here, we show that these alterations are associated to an elevated production of cytotoxic lignans. Smut-resistant sugarcane varieties display a fivefold increase in pinoresinol and also produce elevated amounts of secoisolariciresinol. Conversely, smut-sensitive varieties do not produce pinoresinol or secoisolariciresinol upon infection, synthesizing instead small amounts of matairesinol. Our data indicate that commercial pinoresinol and secoisolariciresinol seem to prevent smut teliospore germination and sporidia release from sprouted teliospores. Consistently, we observed abundant morphological alterations of sporidia incubated in the presence of these lignans. However, commercial lignans do not block the development of the pathogen in a definitive way. Additional experiments demonstrate that only the extracts from healthy or smut-exposed resistant plants inhibit sporidia growth in vitro, indicating that a specific mixture of lignans from resistant plants is necessary to constitute an effective defense mechanism. PB Elsevier SN 0176-1617 YR 2019 FD 2019-11-27 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/6512 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/6512 LA eng NO Sánchez-Elordi, Elena, et al. «Increase in Cytotoxic Lignans Production after Smut Infection in Sugar Cane Plants». Journal of Plant Physiology, vol. 244, enero de 2020, p. 153087. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jplph.2019.153087. NO Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (Brasil) NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid DS Docta Complutense RD 12 abr 2025