Black dot is a blemish disease of potato tubers caused by the phytopathogenic fungus
Colletotrichum coccodes. Qualitative resistance (monogenic) that leads to the
hypersensitive response has not been reported against black dot, but commercial
potato cultivars show different susceptibility levels to the disease, indicating that
quantitative resistance (polygenic) mechanisms against this pathogen exist. Cytological
studies are essential to decipher pathogen colonization of the plant tissue, and untargeted
metabolomics has been shown effective in highlighting resistance-related metabolites in
quantitative resistance. In this study, we used five commercial potato cultivars with
different susceptibility levels to black dot, and studied the structural and biochemical
aspects that correlate with resistance to black dot using cytological and untargeted
metabolomics methods. The cytological approach using semithin sections of potato tuber
periderm revealed that C. coccodes colonizes the tuber periderm, but does not penetrate
in cortical cells. Furthermore, skin thickness did not correlate with disease susceptibility,
indicating that other factors influence quantitative resistance to black dot. Furthermore,
suberin amounts did not correlate with black dot severity, and suberin composition was
similar between the five potato cultivars studied. On the other hand, the untargeted
metabolomics approach allowed highlighting biomarkers of infection, as well as
constitutive and induced resistance-related metabolites. Hydroxycinnamic acids,
hydroxycinnamic acid amides and steroidal saponins were found to be biomarkers of
resistance under control conditions, while hydroxycoumarins were found to be specifically
induced in the resistant cultivars. Notably, some of these biomarkers showed antifungal
activity in vitro against C. coccodes. Altogether, our results show that quantitative resistance of potatoes to black dot involves structural and biochemical mechanisms, including
the production of specialized metabolites with antifungal properties.