Plant Physiol. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Plant Physiology Preview
Published on January 24, 2008; 10.1104/pp.107.114785

OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE
This Article
Free via Open Access: OA
Right arrow Full Text (Plant Physiology Preview (PDF))
Right arrow Supplemental Data
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
146/3/927    most recent
pp.107.114785v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wu, J.
Right arrow Articles by Baldwin, I. T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Wu, J.
Right arrow Articles by Baldwin, I. T.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Wu, J.
Right arrow Articles by Baldwin, I. T.

Received December 11, 2007
Accepted January 11, 2008

A comparison of two Nicotiana attenuata accessions reveals large differences in signaling induced by oral secretions of the specialist herbivore Manduca sexta

Jianqiang Wu , Christian Hettenhausen , Meredith C. Schuman , and Ian T. Baldwin *

Department of Molecular Ecology, Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoll Str. 8, 07745 Jena, Germany

* Corresponding author; email: baldwin{at}ice.mpg.de.

Genetic variation within and among populations provides the raw material for evolution. Although many studies describe inter- and intraspecific variation of defensive metabolites, little is known about variation among plant populations within early signaling responses elicited by herbivory, or by herbivore oral secretions (OS) introduced into wounds during feeding. In this study, we compare the OS-elicited early responses as well as the anti-herbivore defensive metabolites in two accessions of the wild tobacco Nicotiana attenuata and show that, compared with an accession collected from Utah (UT, USA), an Arizona (AZ, USA) accession has lower herbivore-elicited activity of the salicylic acid-induced protein kinase (SIPK), an important MAP kinase involved in herbivore resistance. These differences in SIPK activity were associated with substantially different levels of OS-elicited jasmonic acid (JA), JA-isoleucine conjugate (JA-Ile), and ethylene (ET) bursts. Gene expression level polymorphism (ELP) determines phenotypic variation among populations, and we found the two accessions to have significantly different ELPs in the genes involved in early signaling responses to herbivory. In addition, we found differences between the UT and the AZ accessions in the concentrations of several secondary metabolites that contribute to N. attenuata's direct and indirect defenses. This study demonstrates significant natural variation in regulatory elements that mediate plant responses to herbivore attack, highlighting the role of ELP in producing a diversity of plant defense phenotypes.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
ASPB Publications PLANT PHYSIOLOGY THE PLANT CELL
Copyright © 2008 by the American Society of Plant Biologists