Acylsugars protect Nicotiana benthamiana against insect herbivory and desiccation
Key message Nicotiana benthamiana acylsugar acyltransferase (ASAT) is required for protection against desiccation and insect herbivory. Knockout mutations provide a new resource for investigation of plant-aphid and plant-whitefly interactions. Nicotiana benthamiana is used extensively as a transient...
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Published in | Plant molecular biology Vol. 109; no. 4-5; pp. 505 - 522 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article Web Resource |
Language | English |
Published |
Dordrecht
Springer Netherlands
01.07.2022
Springer Springer Nature B.V Springer Science and Business Media B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Key message
Nicotiana benthamiana
acylsugar acyltransferase (ASAT) is required for protection against desiccation and insect herbivory. Knockout mutations provide a new resource for investigation of plant-aphid and plant-whitefly interactions.
Nicotiana benthamiana
is used extensively as a transient expression platform for functional analysis of genes from other species. Acylsugars, which are produced in the trichomes, are a hypothesized cause of the relatively high insect resistance that is observed in
N. benthamiana.
We characterized the
N. benthamiana
acylsugar profile, bioinformatically identified two acylsugar acyltransferase genes,
ASAT1
and
ASAT2
, and used CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis to produce acylsugar-deficient plants for investigation of insect resistance and foliar water loss. Whereas
asat1
mutations reduced accumulation,
asat2
mutations caused almost complete depletion of foliar acylsucroses. Three hemipteran and three lepidopteran herbivores survived, gained weight, and/or reproduced significantly better on
asat2
mutants than on wildtype
N. benthamiana
. Both
asat1
and
asat2
mutations reduced the water content and increased leaf temperature. Our results demonstrate the specific function of two ASAT proteins in
N. benthamiana
acylsugar biosynthesis, insect resistance, and desiccation tolerance. The improved growth of aphids and whiteflies on
asat2
mutants will facilitate the use of
N. benthamiana
as a transient expression platform for the functional analysis of insect effectors and resistance genes from other plant species. Similarly, the absence of acylsugars in
asat2
mutants will enable analysis of acylsugar biosynthesis genes from other Solanaceae by transient expression. |
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Bibliography: | scopus-id:2-s2.0-85115990156 |
ISSN: | 0167-4412 1573-5028 1573-5028 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s11103-021-01191-3 |