Dynamic transcriptome analysis and volatile profiling of Gossypium hirsutum in response to the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 11867
• Main Authors: Huang, Xin-Zheng, Chen, Jie-Yin, Xiao, Hai-Jun, Xiao, Yu-Tao, Wu, Juan, Wu, Jun-Xiang, Zhou, Jing-Jiang, Zhang, Yong-Jun, Guo, Yu-Yuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 07.07.2015
• Subjects: Allelochemicals; Animals; Cluster Analysis; Cotton; Defense mechanisms; Gas chromatography; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gossypium - chemistry; Gossypium - metabolism; Herbivory; Infestation; Jasmonic acid; Larva - metabolism; Lipoxygenase; Mass spectroscopy; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Moths - growth & development; Moths - physiology; Organic compounds; Plant Growth Regulators - metabolism; Plant Leaves - chemistry; Plant Leaves - metabolism; Terpenes - analysis; Terpenes - chemistry; Terpenes - metabolism; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - metabolism; Transcriptome; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; Volatile Organic Compounds - analysis; Volatile Organic Compounds - chemistry; Volatile Organic Compounds - metabolism; Volatiles
• DOI: 10.1038/srep11867
• ISSN: 2045-2322

In response to insect herbivory, plants emit elevated levels of volatile organic compounds for direct and indirect resistance. However, little is known about the molecular and genomic basis of defense response that insect herbivory trigger in cotton plants and how defense mechanisms are orchestrated in the context of other biological processes. Here we monitored the transcriptome changes and volatile characteristics of cotton plants in response to cotton bollworm (CBW; Helicoverpa armigera) larvae infestation. Analysis of samples revealed that 1,969 transcripts were differentially expressed (log2|Ratio| ≥ 2; q ≤ 0.05) after CBW infestation. Cluster analysis identified several distinct temporal patterns of transcriptome changes. Among CBW-induced genes, those associated with indirect defense and jasmonic acid pathway were clearly over-represented, indicating that these genes play important roles in CBW-induced defenses. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses revealed that CBW infestation could induce cotton plants to release volatile compounds comprised lipoxygenase-derived green leaf volatiles and a number of terpenoid volatiles. Responding to CBW larvae infestation, cotton plants undergo drastic reprogramming of the transcriptome and the volatile profile. The present results increase our knowledge about insect herbivory-induced metabolic and biochemical processes in plants, which may help improve future studies on genes governing processes.