Southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula) attack alters soybean gene expression related with cell wall proteins in developing seeds

ILINA NATALIA; BARNETO JÉSICA A.; ZAVALA, JORGE A.

illinois

Congreso; 30th meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology; 2014

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Plant cell walls are complex and dynamic structures with several functions, mainly being a physical barrier against pathogens and herbivores. Southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula) is one of the most important pests of soybean (Glycine max) in South America. Plants are constantly challenged by insect attack, thus they have evolved an array of defense mechanisms against herbivores. Cell wall can be an important barrier against insects, such as stink bugs. However seeds cell wall-insect interaction is an unexplored field. Here we studied gene expression of cell wall associated proteins involved in the modification of the cell wall soybean seeds. We proposed that the stink bug attack cause a rearrangement of the cell wall. These changes may be regulated by hormones related to plant defenses such as jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA). To address this question we apply to developing seeds JA or SA, allowed stink bugs to feed on seed and analyzed the cell wall transcriptional response. We found that 72h after stink bugs attack increased expansine (EXP), xyloglucan endo-transferase (EXT), pectate lyase (PL) y polygalacturonase (PG) expression. Interestingly, when SA was applied we detected a strong induction for PG, PL, xyloglucan fucosyltransferase (XFT) and xyloglucan endo-transglycosylase (XET) transcripts; while with JA treatment only EXP and XFT were up-regulated. Our results suggest that stink bug attack increases expression of cell wall genes transcription that produce chemical rearrangements regulated by both JA and SA.