Publications of NIPGR Scientists

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Start date: 2020Subject: search.filters.subject.Herbivory

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Insect herbivory simulation and insect bioassays to study plant stress memory response
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2026) Meena, Mukesh Kumar
    Plant stress memory response is an emerging field in plant–insect interaction. Recent reports indicate phytohormone jasmonic acid (JA) triggers long-term effects on the defense phenotype, transcriptome, and DNA methylome of Arabidopsis. Long-term JA-mediated induced resistance required MYC2/3/4 transcription factors and epigenetic regulatory components that prepare plants for future insect herbivore threats. Three weeks after transient JA signaling, 5-week-old plants retained induced resistance against herbivory but showed increased susceptibility to pathogens. This mechanism is linked with long-term priming and/or upregulation of JA-dependent defense genes but repression of ethylene- and salicylic acid-dependent genes. Still more research is required to fully understand plant stress memory response in plant–insect interaction. Here, a detailed and reproducible protocol for simulated herbivory and sample collection for transcriptomic and metabolomic studies is described to investigate involved defense signaling pathways. Furthermore, the insect bioassay protocol is described to study insect performance on various plant genotypes. Both protocols are robust and could be useful to study plant stress memory response in plant defense mechanisms through simulated herbivory and direct insect performance and feeding behavior by insect bioassays.
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    Secret weapon of insects: The oral secretion cocktail and its modulation of host immunity
    (Oxford University Press, 2024) Prajapati, Vinod Kumar; Vijayan, Vishakh; Vadassery, Jyothilakshmi
    Plants and insects have co-existed for almost 400 million years and their interactions can be beneficial or harmful, thus reflecting their intricate co-evolutionary dynamics. Many herbivorous arthropods cause tremendous crop loss, impacting the agro-economy worldwide. Plants possess an arsenal of chemical defenses that comprise diverse secondary metabolites that help protect against harmful herbivorous arthropods. In response, the strategies that herbivores use to cope with plant defenses can be behavioral, or molecular and/or biochemical of which salivary secretions are a key determinant. Insect salivary secretions/oral secretions (OSs) play a crucial role in plant immunity as they contain several biologically active elicitors and effector proteins that modulate plants’ defense responses. Using this oral secretion cocktail, insects overcome plant natural defenses to allow successful feeding. However, a lack of knowledge of the nature of the signals present in oral secretion cocktails has resulted in reduced mechanistic knowledge of their cellular perception. In this review, we discuss the latest knowledge on herbivore oral secretion derived elicitors and effectors and various mechanisms involved in plant defense modulation. Identification of novel herbivore-released molecules and their plant targets should pave the way for understanding the intricate strategies employed by both herbivorous arthropods and plants in their interactions.
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    Regulatory role of phytohormones in the interaction of plants with insect herbivores
    (Elsevier B.V., 2023) Kundu, Pritha; Bera, Paramita; Mishra, Shruti; Vadassery, Jyothilakshmi
    Insect herbivores affect crop growth worldwide, causing significant yield losses annually. Phytohormones are prime signaling molecules that coordinate many physiological phenomena, besides triggering stress-responsive regulatory genes involved in plant defense. Here, we present a holistic picture of the central role of various phytohormones—jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, ethylene, abscisic acid, auxin, cytokinin, gibberellins, and brassinosteroids in regulating the diverse molecular interactions between plants and insect herbivores. With an initial overview of the early signaling response, the chapter majorly focuses on the role of different key phytohormones in defending plants against herbivory and their cross talk. We also describe the phytohormone-mediated production of secondary metabolites and other defense toxins to counteract harmful herbivores. With the well-established myriad of information in selected plant–herbivore model systems, it is now critical to translate this knowledge to less explored crop plants for sustainable development in agriculture.
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    Role of WRKY transcription factors in plant defense against lepidopteran insect herbivores: an overview
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2021) Kundu, Pritha; Vadassery, Jyothilakshmi
    Plants, in nature are challenged by various environmental stresses (both biotic and abiotic), which distort the plant growth, development and crop yield. A wide range of insect herbivores attack plants across the globe, throughout the year, causing huge loss to the productivity of crop species. Being sessile, the plants respond to the crisis using a wide range of defense responsive elements which at the transcriptional level, includes the transcription factors, like WRKY, NAC, AP2/ERF, MYB, MYC, bZIP, bHLH and others. Increasing evidences suggest a pivotal role of WRKY TFs in the regulation of plant defense response against herbivory in Arabidopsis and other important crop plants. Unlike pathogenic attack, very limited information is available on the role of different WRKYs in herbivore-plant interaction. In this review, we will thus majorly focus on the role of WRKY transcription factors and its regulation in response to herbivore attack while summarizing the recent developments from the field of transcriptional, post-transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of WRKYs in response to herbivory attack with the prospects for future implementation in research.
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    In silico identification of effector proteins from generalist herbivore Spodoptera litura
    (BioMed Central Ltd, 2020) Prajapati, Vinod Kumar; Varma, Mahendra; Vadassery, Jyothilakshmi
    Background: The common cutworm, Spodoptera litura Fabricius is a leaf and fruit feeding generalist insect of the order Lepidoptera and a destructive agriculture pest. The broad host range of the herbivore is due to its ability to downregulate plant defense across different plants. The identity of Spodoptera litura released effectors that downregulate plant defense are largely unknown. The current study aims to identify genes encoding effector proteins from salivary glands of S. litura (Fab.). Results: Head and salivary glands of Spodoptera litura were used for de-novo transcriptome analysis and effector prediction. Eight hundred ninety-nine proteins from the head and 330 from salivary gland were identified as secretory proteins. Eight hundred eight proteins from the head and 267 from salivary gland proteins were predicted to be potential effector proteins. Conclusions: This study is the first report on identification of potential effectors from Spodoptera litura salivary glands.