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Tumlinson JH. Complex and Beautiful: Unraveling the Intricate Communication Systems Among Plants and Insects. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ENTOMOLOGY 2023; 68:1-12. [PMID: 35834769 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-ento-021622-111028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
My research focuses on elucidating the chemical communication systems linking plants, herbivores, and natural enemies. My interests in integrating chemistry and agriculture led to my graduate studies in the emerging field of chemical ecology. My thesis research resulted in the identification, synthesis, and application of boll weevil sex pheromones. My research group subsequently developed chemical lures for more than 20 species of pest insects. I then shifted my focus to some of the first studies of the chemical signals produced by plants being attacked by herbivores. When insects feed, elicitors in the insects' oral secretions, such as volicitin, a fatty acid-amino acid conjugate elicitor, stimulate plants to release volatile organic compounds. Parasitoid wasps learn to associate these species-specific volatiles with their herbivore hosts. These volatiles also prime nearby plants to activate a faster and higher defense response upon attack. Throughout my career, I have collaborated with scientists from diverse disciplines to tackle fundamental questions in chemical ecology and create innovative solutions for insect management. Our collaborative research has fundamentally changed and improved our understanding of the ongoing coevolution of plants, their herbivores, and the natural enemies that attack those herbivores.
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Affiliation(s)
- James H Tumlinson
- Department of Entomology, Center for Chemical Ecology, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
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2
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Grissett L, Ali A, Coble AM, Logan K, Washington B, Mateson A, McGee K, Nkrumah Y, Jacobus L, Abraham E, Hann C, Bequette CJ, Hind SR, Schmelz EA, Stratmann JW. Survey of Sensitivity to Fatty Acid-Amino Acid Conjugates in the Solanaceae. J Chem Ecol 2020; 46:330-343. [PMID: 31989490 DOI: 10.1007/s10886-020-01152-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2019] [Revised: 01/07/2020] [Accepted: 01/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Plants perceive insect herbivores via a sophisticated surveillance system that detects a range of alarm signals, including herbivore-associated molecular patterns (HAMPs). Fatty acid-amino acid conjugates (FACs) are HAMPs present in oral secretions (OS) of lepidopteran larvae that induce defense responses in many plant species. In contrast to eggplant (Solanum melongena), tomato (S. lycopersicum) does not respond to FACs present in OS from Manduca sexta (Lepidoptera). Since both plants are found in the same genus, we tested whether loss of sensitivity to FACs in tomato may be a domestication effect. Using highly sensitive MAP kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation assays, we demonstrate that four wild tomato species and the closely related potato (S. tuberosum) do not respond to the FACs N-linolenoyl-L-glutamine and N-linolenoyl-L-glutamic acid, excluding a domestication effect. Among other genera within the Solanaceae, we found that bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) is responsive to FACs, while there is a differential responsiveness to FACs among tobacco (Nicotiana) species, ranging from strong responsiveness in N. benthamiana to no responsiveness in N. knightiana. The Petunia lineage is one of the oldest lineages within the Solanaceae and P. hybrida was responsive to FACs. Collectively, we demonstrate that plant responsiveness to FACs does not follow simple phylogenetic relationships in the family Solanaceae. Instead, sensitivity to FACs is a dynamic ancestral trait present in monocots and eudicots that was repeatedly lost during the evolution of Solanaceae species. Although tomato is insensitive to FACs, we found that other unidentified factors in M. sexta OS induce defenses in tomato.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laquita Grissett
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.,Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington School of Dentistry, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Azka Ali
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Anne-Marie Coble
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Khalilah Logan
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Brandon Washington
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Abigail Mateson
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Kelsey McGee
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Yaw Nkrumah
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Leighton Jacobus
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Evelyn Abraham
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.,Department of Plant Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Claire Hann
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Carlton J Bequette
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.,R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
| | - Sarah R Hind
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.,Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
| | - Eric A Schmelz
- Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Johannes W Stratmann
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
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Waterman JM, Cazzonelli CI, Hartley SE, Johnson SN. Simulated Herbivory: The Key to Disentangling Plant Defence Responses. Trends Ecol Evol 2019; 34:447-458. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.01.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2018] [Revised: 01/17/2019] [Accepted: 01/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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Kinoshita N, Betsuyaku S. The effects of Lepidopteran oral secretion on plant wounds: A case study on the interaction between Spodoptera litura and Arabidopsis thaliana. PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY (TOKYO, JAPAN) 2018; 35:237-242. [PMID: 31819728 PMCID: PMC6879372 DOI: 10.5511/plantbiotechnology.18.0528a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2018] [Accepted: 05/28/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
This paper is about the cellular responses of plants to chewing insect attacks. We deployed a recently developed experimental system to monitor the responsiveness of Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) to the application of oral secretion (OS) from Lepidopteran generalist herbivore Spodoptera litura (S. litura). Oral secretion from S. litura contains gut regurgitant and saliva. We identified significant differences in the wound closure morphologies (e.g., dried and sealed tissue) between mechanically damaged leaves with and without an application of S. litura OS at the site-of-injury. Experimental controls were mechanically wounded leaves. Wounds were walled off by visible vertical cross sections. Cell death was restricted to the immediate areas of the wounds. In contrast, mechanically damaged leaves treated with S. litura OS did not display a clear sealing pattern due to an absence of a defined vertical cross section at the wound site. Notably, OS treated leaves exhibited a wider area of visible premature senescence (the declining of chlorophyll content caused by death of chloroplasts) around the injury than controls. More pronounced senescence was also observed around the injury in S. litura OS treated wounds than in controls. Heat inactivated S. litura OS elicited a similar response to non-heat inactivated samples. The causal compound is heat stable and thus not a protein. Our results suggest that S. litura OS: (1) inhibited wound recovery responses in leaves; (2) promoted senescence around injured areas. The function of senescence may be to relocate nutritional resources to support plant survival when attacked.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natsuko Kinoshita
- Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, Japan
| | - Shigeyuki Betsuyaku
- Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, Japan
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Sobhy IS, Miyake A, Shinya T, Galis I. Oral Secretions Affect HIPVs Induced by Generalist (Mythimna loreyi) and Specialist (Parnara guttata) Herbivores in Rice. J Chem Ecol 2017; 43:929-943. [DOI: 10.1007/s10886-017-0882-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2017] [Revised: 08/11/2017] [Accepted: 08/17/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
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Cheng Q, Gu S, Liu Z, Wang CZ, Li X. Expressional divergence of the fatty acid-amino acid conjugate-hydrolyzing aminoacylase 1 (L-ACY-1) in Helicoverpa armigera and Helicoverpa assulta. Sci Rep 2017; 7:8721. [PMID: 28821781 PMCID: PMC5562920 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-09185-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2017] [Accepted: 07/24/2017] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
How FACs-producing generalist and specialist herbivores regulate their FACs-hydrolyzing enzyme L-ACY-1 to balance FACs’ beneficial vs. detrimental effects remains unknown. To address this question, we compared L-ACY-1 expression in Helicoverpa armigera and Helicoverpa assulta, a pair of closely related sibling species differing mainly in their host range, by the same sets of hostplants, protein to digestible carbohydrate (P:C) ratios, or allelochemical. L-ACY-1 expression remained low/unchanged in H. armigera, but was induced by hot pepper fruits and repressed by cotton bolls in H. assulta. The representative allelochemicals of the tested hostplants significantly (capsaicin) or insignificantly (gossypol and nicotine) induced L-ACY-1 expression in H. armigera, but insignificantly inhibited (capsaicin and gossypol) or induced (nicotine) it in H. assulta. L-ACY-1 expression remained low/unaltered on balanced (P50:C50 and P53:C47) or protein-biased diets and induced on carbohydrate-biased diets in H. armigera, but was at the highest level on balanced diets and reduced on either protein- or carbohydrate-biased diets in H. assulta. Furthermore, L-ACY-1 expression was significantly higher in H. assulta than in H. armigera for most of feeding treatments. Such expressional divergences suggest that FACs are utilized mainly for removal of excessive nitrogen in generalists but for nitrogen assimilation in specialists.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Cheng
- Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crop Diseases and Pests (Ministry of Education), College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China.,State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Shaohua Gu
- State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Zewen Liu
- Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crop Diseases and Pests (Ministry of Education), College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China.
| | - Chen-Zhu Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Xianchun Li
- State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, China. .,Department of Entomology and BIO5 Institute, The University of Arizona, Tucson, 85721, AZ, USA.
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Shinya T, Hojo Y, Desaki Y, Christeller JT, Okada K, Shibuya N, Galis I. Modulation of plant defense responses to herbivores by simultaneous recognition of different herbivore-associated elicitors in rice. Sci Rep 2016; 6:32537. [PMID: 27581373 PMCID: PMC5007475 DOI: 10.1038/srep32537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2016] [Accepted: 08/10/2016] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Induced plant defense responses against insect herbivores are triggered by wounding and/or perception of herbivore elicitors from their oral secretions (OS) and/or saliva. In this study, we analyzed OS isolated from two rice chewing herbivores, Mythimna loreyi and Parnara guttata. Both types of crude OS had substantial elicitor activity in rice cell system that allowed rapid detection of early and late defense responses, i.e. accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and defense secondary metabolites, respectively. While the OS from M. loreyi contained large amounts of previously reported insect elicitors, fatty acid-amino acid conjugates (FACs), the elicitor-active P. guttata's OS contained no detectable FACs. Subsequently, elicitor activity associated with the high molecular mass fraction in OS of both herbivores was identified, and shown to promote ROS and metabolite accumulations in rice cells. Notably, the application of N-linolenoyl-Gln (FAC) alone had only negligible elicitor activity in rice cells; however, the activity of isolated elicitor fraction was substantially promoted by this FAC. Our results reveal that plants integrate various independent signals associated with their insect attackers to modulate their defense responses and reach maximal fitness in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomonori Shinya
- Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, Kurashiki, Okayama 710-0046, Japan
| | - Yuko Hojo
- Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, Kurashiki, Okayama 710-0046, Japan
| | - Yoshitake Desaki
- Department of Life Sciences, School of Agriculture, Meiji University, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 214-8571, Japan
| | - John T. Christeller
- The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand
| | - Kazunori Okada
- Biotechnology Research Center, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan
| | - Naoto Shibuya
- Department of Life Sciences, School of Agriculture, Meiji University, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 214-8571, Japan
| | - Ivan Galis
- Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, Kurashiki, Okayama 710-0046, Japan
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Yoshinaga N. Physiological function and ecological aspects of fatty acid-amino acid conjugates in insects†. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 2016; 80:1274-82. [DOI: 10.1080/09168451.2016.1153956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Abstract
In tritrophic interactions, plants recognize herbivore-produced elicitors and release a blend of volatile compounds (VOCs), which work as chemical cues for parasitoids or predators to locate their hosts. From detection of elicitors to VOC emissions, plants utilize sophisticated systems that resemble the plant–microbe interaction system. Fatty acid–amino acid conjugates (FACs), a class of insect elicitors, resemble compounds synthesized by microbes in nature. Recent evidence suggests that the recognition of insect elicitors by an ancestral microbe-associated defense system may be the origin of tritrophic interactions mediated by FACs. Here we discuss our findings in light of how plants have customized this defense to be effective against insect herbivores, and how some insects have successfully adapted to these defenses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naoko Yoshinaga
- Division of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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Schmelz EA. Impacts of insect oral secretions on defoliation-induced plant defense. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2015; 9:7-15. [PMID: 32846712 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2015.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2015] [Revised: 04/06/2015] [Accepted: 04/09/2015] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Plant responses to biotic stress involve non-self perception, signaling, and altered defense phenotypes. During attack, defoliating insects deposit gland secretions (GS) and complex foregut derived oral secretions (OS) that include GS and combined products of plant, insect, and microbial interactions. GS-derived and OS-derived biochemicals that trigger defense are termed Herbivore Associated Molecular Patterns (HAMPs) while those that promote susceptibility are termed effectors. These functions are highly context and species specific. The magnitude and direction of plant responses are orchestrated by the interaction of damage, OS/GS components, predicted receptor-ligand interactions, ion fluxes, protein kinase signaling cascades, phytohormone interactions, transcription factor activation, altered translation, and defense biosynthesis. Unlike plant-pathogen recognition, a remaining challenge is the discovery of plant receptors for defoliator-derived HAMPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric A Schmelz
- Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0380, United States.
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