Periodic Reporting for period 1 - InteCue (Integration of volatile cues and plant peptide signals for enhanced herbivore resistance in tomato)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-03-01 al 2023-02-28
Insect herbivores are major pests causing severe yield losses in agriculture. They are great threat for food safety. Therefore, it is important to explore and exploit the arsenals plants have for self-protection, especially in a time urgently demanding sustainable agriculture. To breed new pest resistant crops and to develop efficient biocontrol strategies, we need to understand how plants sense different danger cues to initiate defense against insect herbivores. InteCue aims to address one important question: If and how plants integrate airborne volatile cues and vasculature transduced peptide signals in anti-herbivore defense. The main objectives of InteCue are: 1. Evaluating the capacity of plants to integrate volatile cues and plant peptide signals; 2. Dissecting the molecular mechanisms of potential signal integration. Research from InteCue shows that plants have different defensive strategies. Maize plants can combine volatile cues and plant peptide signals to start strong anti-herbivore defense, while tomato plants are not able to do so. InteCue has successfully achieved its major objectives. It has also created important resources for a deeper mechanistic understanding of plant volatile and peptide signaling integration.
InteCue had 3 work packages. In WP1, we analyzed the defense responses triggered by volatile cues and phytocytokines in both tomato and maize. We found volatile-phytocytokine synergy in maize but not in tomato. In WP2, we conducted an RNA-seq experiment to illustrate the transcriptional landscape shaped by the green leaf volatile (Z)-3-Hexenyl-acetate and the phytocytokine ZmPep3 in maize. We further evaluated the impact of HAC on ZmPep3 mediated defense. Our work showed that HAC signaling and ZmPep3 signaling are interconnected yet with substantial specificity. In WP3, we generated mutants in both tomato and maize using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool. We functionally characterized the role of a novel phytocytokine in tomato defense and development. We further created high order mutants of 4 maize genes for in depth analysis of volatile-phytocytokine signaling integration. Overall, InteCue has generated 1 review paper, 1 research paper and 1 research manuscript in preparation. It has also created mutants for 1 tomato gene and 4 maize genes ready for further research and to share with the research community. We have communicated the discoveries from InteCue in 5 scientific conferences and 1 public outreach event.
Discoveries from InteCue have advanced the knowledge in plant volatile perception and plant peptide signaling. We discovered that the immature leaves in maize are the dominant volatile sensing organs. This ‘nose’ function disappears as soon as the leaves mature. We have also identified a novel peptide that plays an important role regulating growth and defense in tomato. The former discovery leads to a manuscript that is published in the preprint server bioRxiv and submitted to a peer reviewed journal. The latter discovery leads to a manuscript in preparation. The work in InteCue has attracted substantial attention from the public during the “Night of Research” event in Bern on September 10th, 2022. We expect the formal publication of our work would spark great curiosity from both the research community and the public. Our findings also provide a basis for further exploring the plant defense network. Ultimately, progresses made from InteCue will contribute to breeding elite crop cultivars with higher insect resistance.