DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0cfxpnwc2
title: Data from: Whole plant disease severity is associated with reduced polyphenolic concentrations in lesioned but not green tissue in eelgrass

description: Plants possess an impressive range of chemical traits to defend themselves
 against pathogens. Describing and interpreting these traits can provide
 insight into plant resistance to infection and disease progression. To
 examine one potentially responsive chemical trait, we measured the
 polyphenolic content of green and lesioned tissue from
 Labyrinthula-infected seagrass shoots growing in both the field and a
 long-term common garden. Infection of eelgrass (Zostera marina) with
 wasting disease (Labyrinthula zosterae) forms necrotic lesions on host
 tissue and is known to alter host photobiology and secondary metabolite
 production. It is common to quantify total polyphenolics as a potential
 measure of eelgrass defense against infection, yet there is no clear
 evidence that phenolics are a reliable indicator of host response or
 immunity. We found that polyphenolic concentrations in green tissue were
 not correlated with whole-plant lesion cover, while polyphenolic
 concentrations in lesion tissue fell predictably as lesion cover
 increased. These results do not support the hypothesis that host plants
 respond to L. zosterae infection with a systemic polyphenolic induction as
 an immune function; we suggest instead that total phenolic concentrations
 in both green and lesioned tissue may be byproducts of other localized
 metabolic processes influenced by the presence of necrotic tissue. Further
 research is necessary to understand whether plant defenses influence
 disease severity in this system.
description: # Whole plant disease severity is associated with reduced polyphenolic
 concentrations in lesioned but not green tissue in eelgrass
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0cfxpnwc2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0cfxpnwc2) ## Description of the data and file structure **GENERAL INFORMATION** Title of Dataset: Whole plant disease severity is associated with reduced polyphenolic concentrations in lesioned but not green tissue in eelgrass Author Information Name: Naomi Murray ORCID: 0000-0002-4343-6264 Institution: University of California, Davis Email: [naomiamurray@gmail.com](mailto:naomiamurray@gmail.com) Principal Investigator Information Name: Jay Stachowicz ORCID: 0000-0003-2735-0564 Institution: University of California, Davis Email: [jjstachowicz@ucdavis.edu](mailto:jjstachowicz@ucdavis.edu) Date of data collection: between July 2020 and July 2021 Geographic location of data collection: Bodega Bay, California, USA METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION Methods for collecting, generating, and processing the data are in the associated publication. Information needed to interpret the data: All analyses were conducted in R (version 4.4.2), and necessary packages can be found at the top of the R-script in the Zenodo repository. ### Files and variables #### File: grass\_field.csv **Description:** Trait data for shoots collected from the field. Missing values denoted with NA.  ##### Variables * Cup_Number: Unique plant ID. * Plant_Area: Total area (cm^2) of the eelgrass shoot. * Plant_Lesion_Cover: The total area (cm^2) of lesioned tissue on each eelgrass shoot. * Green_Penetrometer: The mass of sand (g) required to pierce the green leaf tissue of the plant. * Lesion_Penetrometer: The mass of sand (g) required to pierce the lesion leaf tissue of the plant. * Green_Phenolics: Phenolic acid content of the green tissue of the plant (given as a percent of dry weight). * Lesion_Phenolics: Lesion_Phenolics - Phenolic acid content of the lesion tissue of the plant (given as a percent of dry weight). * Green_Nitrogen: The percent nitrogen of the green tissue of the plant. * Green_Carbon: The percent carbon of the green tissue of the plant. * Green_C_N: The ratio of C:N in the green tissue of the plant. * Lesion_Nitrogen:  The percent nitrogen of the lesion tissue of the plant. * Lesion_Carbon: The percent carbon of the lesion tissue of the plant. * Lesion_C_N: The ratio of C:N in the lesion tissue of the plant. * Average_Lesion_Area: The average size of each individual lesion on the shoot. #### File: grass\_garden.csv **Description:** Trait data for shoots collected from the common garden.  Missing values/blank cells denotes "NA".  ##### Variables * Plant_ID: Unique plant ID, with information on the distinct genotype "number", whether the shoot was selected as having "less" or "more" lesions, and the time point sampled (either the beginning or end of the summer). * Time: One of two time points at which the shoots were harvested from the common garden; time "1" was in the beginning of the summer and time "2" was several weeks later. * Plant_Number: The genotype of each shoot * Tidal_Height: The tidal height (subtidal, low intertidal or high intertidal) from which the original shoots were collected from the field in 2012. * Disease_Level: The relative amount of lesion cover on the shoot, with "M" denoting "more" lesions relative to the other shoots of the same genotype, and "L" denoting "less" lesions relative to other shoots. * Tissue_Type: Either "G" for green tissue, or "L" for lesioned tissue. * Lesion_Cover: Total area (cm^2) of lesioned tissue on each eelgrass shoot. * Phenolics: Phenolic acid content of the tissue sample (given as a percent of dry weight) * Nitrogen: The percent nitrogen of in the tissue sample. * Carbon: The percent carbon in the tissue sample. * C_N: The ratio of C:N in the tissue sample. * Penetrometer: The mass of sand (g) required to pierce the tissue.  ## Code/software Software: R (Version 4.4.2) and RStudio. Packages: readr; ggplot2; nlme; lmerTest