The influence of metabolically engineered glucosinolates profiles in Arabidopsis thaliana on Plutella xylostella preference and performance.

The oviposition preference and larval performance of the diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella, was studied using Arabidopsis thaliana plants with modified glucosinolate (GS) profiles containing novel GSs as a result of the introduction of individual CYP79 genes. The insect parameters were determined in a series of bioassays. The GS content of the plants as well as the number of trichomes were measured. Multivariate analysis was used to determine the possible relationships among insect and plant variables. The novel GSs in the tested lines did not appear to have any unequivocal effect on the DBM. Instead, the plant characteristics that affected larval performance and larval preference did not influence oviposition preference. Trichomes did not affect oviposition, but influenced larval parameters negatively. Although the tested A. thaliana lines had earlier been shown to influence disease resistance, in this study no clear results were found for P. xylostella.

Transcript profiling of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) primed for biocontrol differentiate genes involved in microbial interactions with beneficial Bacillus amyloliquefaciens from pathogenic Botrytis cinerea.

Many microorganisms interact with plants but information is insufficient concerning requirements for plant colonization and if interactions become beneficial or detrimental. Pretreatment of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) with Bacillus results in disease suppression upon challenge with pathogens. We have studied transcriptome effects on oilseed rape primed with the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens 5113 biocontrol strain and compared that with effects of the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea. Using the cDNA-AFLP technique 21,700 transcript fragments were obtained of which 120 were differentially expressed and verified by northern blot analysis for selected transcripts. Priming with Bacillus caused greater effect on leaf than root transcripts where sequencing and BLAST analysis suggested many of the transcripts to be involved in metabolism and bioenergy. Bacillus and Botrytis treatment also changed metabolic gene expression in addition to signaling and transcription control genes as well as a potential disease resistance (TIR-NBS-LRR) gene. The pathogen provoked non-primed plant profile was less dominated by metabolism than Bacillus and Bacillus-Botrytis treated plants. Several transcripts were homologues to unknown genes in the different treatments. Altogether Bacillus treatment of roots cause a systemic gene expression in leaves suggested to result in a metabolic reprogramming as a major event during priming.

Transcriptional profiling by cDNA-AFLP reveals novel insights during methyl jasmonate, wounding and insect attack in Brassica napus.

Plants exploit a broad range of defense mechanisms to effectively combat invasion by pathogens or herbivores. Each environmental stress activates multiple signal transduction pathways to ensure an effective spatial and temporal defense response. A detailed transcriptome analysis using the cDNA-AFLP technique was performed to identify genes that are differentially expressed in oilseed rape (Brassica napus cv. Westar) leaves upon treatment with methyl jasmonate, mechanical wounding, or feeding by diamondback moth larvae (Plutella xylostella). In total, 16 different primer combinations were used, generating cDNA fragments ranging from 50 bp to 500 bp in size. This technique generated an average of 60 amplification products per reaction and therefore a total number of 5,600 fragments per treatment. Out of 16,800 bands, 124 showed qualitative differences among the treated and their respective control samples, including 95 up-regulated and 29 down-regulated bands. Expression of a selected subset of differentially expressed genes was confirmed by Northern blot analysis. Sequencing of fragments grouped many of the expressed genes in the categories of signaling and wound or pathogen response with examples like Jacalin, Strictosidine synthase and MD-2-LPS homologs. Genes with altered expression in distal tissue included those involved in cellular housekeeping functions, suggesting modified resource allocation needed to respond to different stress conditions. Differences in local and systemic response as well as among the three different challenges were observed. Several new transcripts were identified that may play a role in insect attack and other signal transduction pathways.

Elicitation of defense related enzymes and resistance by L-methionine in pearl millet against downy mildew disease caused by Sclerospora graminicola.

Induction of resistance to downy mildew in pearl millet was studied after treatment with L-methionine. The disease severity was drastically reduced in the seedlings after treatment with L-methionine. Northern hybridization was used to study the transcript (mRNA) accumulation of defense response genes upon treatment with L-methionine in pearl millet seedlings and the mechanism during the induction of resistance. The gene activation patterns in the highly resistant cultivar IP18294 were compared with those exhibited by the susceptible cultivar 7042S at various time intervals to determine if differences in timing or levels of transcript accumulation could be correlated with the differences in the susceptibility of pearl millet to the downy mildew pathogen, Sclerospora graminicola. The mRNA levels of genes for Pr-1a, beta-1,3-glucanase, chitinase, peroxidase, lipoxygenases and chalcone synthase showed an increase after inoculation with S. graminicola. Significant gene activation was observed in the susceptible cultivar 7042S after treatment with L-methionine followed by challenge inoculation with the downy mildew pathogen which was comparable to the resistant cultivar.