A Mechanistic insight into chemical cues and interactions involved in herbivory induced jasmonate mediated plant defense mechanism

The first step in plant defense mechanism is to sense the insect attack stimulus. Plant sensitivity of an insect attack is the first step of defense. Molecules generated by the oral secretion of the insect interact with the plant receptors to trigger plant defense mechanisms. We selected some highly cited insect elicitors molecules, volicitin, caeliferin, bruchin which interact with plant defense by interacting with plant elicitors (systemin, inceptin and peps) located on the plant cell surface. This interaction activates plant receptors SYR1, LRR, PEPR and triggers downstream defense signaling. The octadecanoid pathways, involving enzymes allene oxide synthase (AOS) and Hydroxyperoxide lyase (HPL) are activated. These enzymes mediate production of green leafy volatiles and Jasmonic acid by interacting with hydroxperoxide molecules. We docked the elicitors with receptors and enzymes with substrates in the pathway of JA production. Phe was found to be an important amino acid that interacts with 13- hydroxyperoxides in the case of AOS to produce JA but not in the case of HPL. JA is converted to JA-Ile which shows strong binding with COI1 and COI1-JA-Ile complex docked with JAZ which showed strong interaction with five hydrogens and one salt bridge bond. AOS and HPL showed less than 40% identity for sequence and structure alignment. AOS and HPL had shown an interaction between each other and showed a common interaction partner of the Lipoxygenase family. HPL shows interaction with ADH2 (Alcohol dehydrogenase) involved in GLVs production. AOS also showed interaction partner AOC, COI1 and OPR1 which are involved in JA-induced plant defense mechanism.