Constitutive and inducible trypsin proteinase inhibitor production incurs large fitness costs in Nicotiana attenuata.

ABSTRACT: Plant trypsin proteinase inhibitors (TPIs) are potent herbivore- and jasmonate (JA)-induced defenses, but support for the commonly invoked explanation for their inducible expression, namely their associated fitness costs, has been elusive. To determine whether the expression of TPIs incurs fitness costs, we expressed 175 bp of the seven-domain pi from Nicotiana attenuata in an antisense orientation in a TPI-producing genotype (WT) of N. attenuata to reduce TPI expression. Moreover, we expressed the full-length seven-domain pi in a sense orientation under control of a constitutive promoter to restore TPI activity in a natural genotype unable to produce TPIs because of a mutation in its endogenous pi gene. Lifetime reproductive output was determined from high and low TPI-producing plants of

SUBMITTER: Zavala JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC341788 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature