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Wheat Gene Expression is Differentially Affected by a Virulent Russian Wheat Aphid Biotype

Journal of Chemical Ecology volume 37, Article number: 472 (2011) Cite this article

Abstract

An improved understanding of the complex interactions between plants and aphids is emerging. Recognition of aphid feeding in plant tissues involves production of several defense response signaling pathways and downstream production of defense and detoxification compounds. Feeding by Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia (Kurdjumov), a serious pest of cereal crops worldwide, induces foliar deformity and chlorophyll loss during compatible wheat-D. noxia interactions. Experiments described here revealed significant differences in level and pattern of gene expression in defense response signaling and metabolic pathways between compatible and incompatible D. noxia-wheat interactions. The jasmonate (JA)-signaling genes LOX, AOS, and AOC were significantly more upregulated (~3- to 7 fold) in incompatible interactions than in compatible interactions (~2.5 to 3.5 fold) as early as 1 h post D. noxia infestation (hpi). Cellulose synthase, responsible for strengthening plant cell walls via cellulose production, was also more upregulated in incompatible interactions (4 to 7 fold) than in compatible interactions (1 to 3.5 fold). In contrast, glycolysis and citric acid cycle genes were significantly downregulated (~1.5 to 2 fold) in incompatible interactions and upregulated or less downregulated in compatible interactions from 6 to 72 hpi. Differences in expression of JA-signaling genes between feeding site tissues and non-feeding site tissues suggest that D. noxia defense response signals in wheat are restricted primarily to aphid feeding sites in the initial 6 hpi. This is the first report of differential upregulation of plant genes at 1 hpi in incompatible interactions involving aphid herbivory. Early wheat plant defense responses in incompatible D. noxia interactions at 1, 3, and 6 hpi appear to be important aspects of D. noxia resistance in wheat.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Murugan Marimuthu and Paola Sotelo for helpful comments in discussion of the data and Ming-Shun Chen and Subbarat Muthukrishnan for critical reviews of an early draft of the manuscript. This research was supported by grants to CMS from the Kansas Wheat Commission, the USDA CSREES NC-IPM program and the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. This is contribution No. 10-304-J of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. This research was performed in the Gene Expression Facility at Kansas State University, which is supported through the National Science Foundation grant, DBI 0421427.

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  1. Department of Plant Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Xiang Liu

  2. Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506–4004, USA

    Jianye Meng

  3. Department of Entomology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506–4004, USA

    Sharon Starkey & Charles Michael Smith

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  1. Xiang Liu
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  2. Jianye Meng
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  3. Sharon Starkey
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Correspondence to Charles Michael Smith.

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Liu, X., Meng, J., Starkey, S. et al. Wheat Gene Expression is Differentially Affected by a Virulent Russian Wheat Aphid Biotype. J Chem Ecol 37, 472 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-011-9949-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-011-9949-9

Key Words

  • Aphids
  • Diuraphis noxia
  • Plant gene expression
  • qRT-PCR
  • Triticum aestivum
  • Wheat
  • Jasmonate signaling genes