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Costs of Jasmonic Acid Induced Defense in Aboveground and Belowground Parts of Corn (Zea mays L.)

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Abstract

Costs of jasmonic acid (JA) induced plant defense have gained increasing attention. In this study, JA was applied continuously to the aboveground (AG) or belowground (BG) parts, or AG plus BG parts of corn (Zea mays L.) to investigate whether JA exposure in one part of the plant would affect defense responses in another part, and whether or not JA induced defense would incur allocation costs. The results indicated that continuous JA application to AG parts systemically affected the quantities of defense chemicals in the roots, and vice versa. Quantities of DIMBOA and total amounts of phenolic compounds in leaves or roots generally increased 2 or 4 wk after the JA treatment to different plant parts. In the first 2 wk after application, the increase of defense chemicals in leaves and roots was accompanied by a significant decrease of root length, root surface area, and root biomass. Four weeks after the JA application, however, no such costs for the increase of defense chemicals in leaves and roots were detected. Instead, shoot biomass and root biomass increased. The results suggest that JA as a defense signal can be transferred from AG parts to BG parts of corn, and vice versa. Costs for induced defense elicited by continuous JA application were found in the early 2 wk, while distinct benefits were observed later, i.e., 4 wk after JA treatment.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology in China for providing corn seeds. We also thank Professor Prasanta C. Bhowmik (Department of Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts) and Professor Muhammad Bismillah Khann (College of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan) for revising the manuscript. This research was financially supported by the National 973 Project of China (2011CB100406), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31170506, 41101279), Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20094404120010, 20104404110003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ecological Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Yuanjiao Feng, Jianwu Wang, Shiming Luo, Huizhi Fan & Qiong Jin

  2. Key Laboratory of Agroecology and Rural Environment of Guangdong Regular Higher Education Institutions, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Yuanjiao Feng, Jianwu Wang, Shiming Luo, Huizhi Fan & Qiong Jin

  3. Institute of Tropical and Subtropical Ecology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Yuanjiao Feng, Jianwu Wang, Shiming Luo, Huizhi Fan & Qiong Jin

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  1. Yuanjiao Feng
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Feng, Y., Wang, J., Luo, S. et al. Costs of Jasmonic Acid Induced Defense in Aboveground and Belowground Parts of Corn (Zea mays L.). J Chem Ecol 38, 984–991 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-012-0155-1

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