Abstract
Cotton aphids (Aphis gossypii Glover) are important pests of cucurbit crops. Plant defenses at different cell layers, including the leaf surface, mesophyll cells, and phloem, are employed to defend aphids. Here, we assessed differences in aphid resistance among six watermelon varieties and elucidated the defense mechanisms underlying aphid-resistant/susceptible watermelon varieties. The population abundance, offspring number per female, and meantime of phloem-feeding (E2 phase) of aphids were the highest on XiNong (XN), followed by JingXin (JX), TianWang (TW), ZaoJia (ZJ), and MeiFuLai (MFL), and these parameters were the lowest on JinMeiDu (JMD). Further analyses showed that there was no correlation between the aphid resistance of six watermelon varieties and defenses at the leaf surface. For defenses at mesophyll cells, aphid infestation increased salicylic acid (SA) content at 48 h post-infestation (hpi) and ROS accumulation at 6 and 12 hpi in six watermelon varieties. For phloem defenses, aphid infestation increased callose content in JMD plants but decreased callose content in JX, TW, ZJ, MFL, and XN plants at 6, 12, 24, and 48 hpi. Moreover, callose deposition suppressed by 2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-DDG) neutralized the resistance of JMD plants and exacerbated the susceptibility of XN plants to aphids, which exhibited a higher population abundance and E2 phase time. Collectively, phloem defenses regulated by aphid-induced callose deposition were responsible for differences in aphid resistance among the watermelon varieties.
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Data availability
The data that supports the findings of this study is openly available in figshare at https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19697335.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Dr. Chunyan Zheng (Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetic and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) for her advice on statistical analyses.
Funding
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Number 32102212), Science Fund for Young Scholars from the Beijing University of Agriculture to H.G. Guo (Grant Number QNKJ202103), General Project of Scientific Research Program of Beijing Educational Committee (Grant Number KM202110020011), Innovation Ability Improvement Fund for Young Scholars from the Beijing University of Agriculture to H.G. Guo (Grant Number QJKC2022001).
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Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y., Chen, A. et al. Callose deposition regulates differences in cotton aphid resistance among six watermelon varieties. J Pest Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-024-01757-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-024-01757-2