Insect Egg Deposition Induces Indirect Defense and Epicuticular Wax Changes in Arabidopsis thaliana

Plant anti-herbivore defence is inducible by both insect feeding and egg deposition. However, little is known about the ability of insect eggs to induce defences directed not against the eggs themselves, but against larvae that subsequently hatch from the eggs. We studied how oviposition (OP) by the sawfly Diprion pini on Pinus sylvestris foliage affects the plant's defensive potential against sawfly larvae. Larvae that initiated their development on P. sylvestris twigs on which they hatched from eggs gained less weight and suffered higher mortality than those fed on egg-free twigs. The poor performance of these larvae also affected the next herbivore generation since fecundity of resulting females was lower than that of females which spent their larval development on egg-free pine. Transcript levels of P. sylvestris sesquiterpene synthases ( Ps TPS1, Ps TPS2) were increased by D. pini OP, reached their highest levels just before larval hatching, and decreased when larvae started to feed. However, concentrations of terpenoid and phenolic metabolites presumed to act as feeding deterrents or toxins for herbivores did not change significantly after OP and feeding. Nevertheless, our performance data suggest that insect egg deposition may act to ‘warn’ a plant of upcoming feeding damage by larvae.

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Transcriptomic basis for reinforcement of elm antiherbivore defence mediated by insect egg deposition

Molecular Ecology ◽

10.1111/mec.14900 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 27 (23) ◽

pp. 4901-4915 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Simone Altmann ◽

Jose M. Muino ◽

Vivien Lortzing ◽

Ronny Brandt ◽

Axel Himmelbach ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Insect Egg ◽

Egg Deposition ◽

Antiherbivore Defence

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Multidisciplinary Approach to Unravelling the Relative Contribution of Different Oxylipins in Indirect Defense of Arabidopsis thaliana

Journal of Chemical Ecology ◽

10.1007/s10886-009-9696-3 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 35 (9) ◽

pp. 1021-1031 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Tjeerd A. L. Snoeren ◽

Remco M. P. Van Poecke ◽

Marcel Dicke

Keyword(s):

Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽

Multidisciplinary Approach ◽

Indirect Defense ◽

Relative Contribution

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Isolation and characterization of eceriferum (cer) mutants induced by T-DNA insertions in Arabidopsis thaliana

Genome ◽

10.1139/g93-082 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 610-618 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

John P. McNevin ◽

Wendy Woodward ◽

Abdelali Hannoufa ◽

Kenneth A. Feldmann ◽

Bertrand Lemieux

Keyword(s):

Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽

Length Distribution ◽

Transformation Method ◽

Epicuticular Wax ◽

Primary Alcohols ◽

Chain Length Distribution ◽

Isolation And Characterization ◽

Mutant Phenotypes ◽

Mutant Lines ◽

Fatty Aldehydes

Thirteen Arabidopsis thaliana mutants with deviating epicuticular wax layers (i.e., cer mutants) were isolated by screening 13 000 transformed lines produced by the seed transformation method. After crossing the 13 mutants to some of the previously known cer mutant lines, 12 of our mutants mapped to 6 of the 21 known complementation groups (cer1 through cer4 as well as cer6 and cer10), while the other mutant corresponded to a previously unknown locus, cer21. Mutant phenotypes of 6 of the 13 mutant lines were caused by T-DNA insertions within cer genes. We also analyzed the chemical composition of the epicuticular wax layers of the cer mutants isolated in this study relative to that of Arabidopsis wild-type plants. Our results suggest that the five genes we tagged regulate different steps in wax biosynthesis, i.e., the decarbonylation of fatty aldehydes to alkanes, the elongation of hexacosanoic acid to octacosanoic acid, the reduction of fatty aldehydes to primary alcohols and the production of free aldehydes, while an insertion in the fifth gene causes an alteration in the chain length distribution of the different classes of wax compounds.Key words: epicuticular wax, glossy mutants, gas chromotography – mass spectroscopy.

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