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Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Detached Leaf Assays to Simplify Gene Expression Studies in Potato During Infestation by Chewing Insect Manduca sexta
Published on: May 15, 2019
Natural history-guided omics reveals plant defensive chemistry against leafhopper pests
Yuechen Bai1, Caiqiong Yang1, Rayko Halitschke1
1Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, D-07745 Jena, Germany.
Abstract:
Although much is known about plant traits that function in nonhost resistance against pathogens, little is known about nonhost resistance against herbivores, despite its agricultural importance. Empoasca leafhoppers, serious agricultural pests, identify host plants by eavesdropping on unknown outputs of jasmonate (JA)-mediated signaling. Forward- and reverse-genetics lines of a native tobacco plant were screened in native habitats with native herbivores using high-throughput genomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic tools to reveal an Empoasca-elicited JA-JAZi module. This module induces an uncharacterized caffeoylputrescine-green leaf volatile compound, catalyzed by a polyphenol oxidase in a Michael addition reaction, which we reconstitute in vitro; engineer in crop plants, where it requires a berberine bridge enzyme-like 2 (BBL2) for its synthesis; and show that it confers resistance to leafhoppers. Natural history-guided forward genetics reveals a conserved nonhost resistance mechanism useful for crop protection.
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