Submergence deactivates wound-induced plant defence against herbivores

Flooding is a common and critical disaster in agriculture, because it causes defects in plant growth and even crop loss. An increase in herbivore populations is often observed after floods, which leads to additional damage to the plants. Although molecular mechanisms underlying the plant responses t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications biology 2020-11, Vol.3 (1), p.651-651, Article 651
Main Authors: Lee, Hyo-Jun, Park, Ji-Sun, Shin, Seung Yong, Kim, Sang-Gyu, Lee, Gisuk, Kim, Hyun-Soon, Jeon, Jae Heung, Cho, Hye Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
13/95
14/19
38
631/449/2661/1880
631/449/2661/2147
Biology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biosynthesis
Ethylene
Flooding
Herbivores
Histones
Hypoxia
Jasmonic acid
Life Sciences
Molecular modelling
Submergence
Wounds
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Flooding is a common and critical disaster in agriculture, because it causes defects in plant growth and even crop loss. An increase in herbivore populations is often observed after floods, which leads to additional damage to the plants. Although molecular mechanisms underlying the plant responses to flooding have been identified, how plant defence systems are affected by flooding remains poorly understood. Herein, we show that submergence deactivates wound-induced defence against herbivore attack in Arabidopsis thaliana . Submergence rapidly suppressed the wound-induced expression of jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis genes, resulting in reduced JA accumulation. While plants exposed to hypoxia in argon gas exhibited similar reduced wound responses, the inhibitory effects were initiated after short-term submergence without signs for lack of oxygen. Instead, expression of ethylene-responsive genes was increased after short-term submergence. Blocking ethylene signalling by ein2-1 mutation partially restored suppressed expression of several wound-responsive genes by submergence. In addition, submergence rapidly removed active markers of histone modifications at a gene locus involved in JA biosynthesis. Our findings suggest that submergence inactivates defence systems of plants, which would explain the proliferation of herbivores after flooding. Hyo-Jun Lee et al. show that submergence in Arabidopsis deactivates wound-induced defence against herbivore attack by suppressing the expression of jasmonic acid biosynthesis genes and increasing expression of ethylene-responsive genes. These results shed light on how flooding may impact plant defence systems.
ISSN:2399-3642
2399-3642
DOI:10.1038/s42003-020-01376-4