Priming of Arabidopsis resistance to herbivory by insect egg deposition depends on the plant's developmental stage.

ABSTRACT: While traits of plant resistance to herbivory often change during ontogeny, it is unknown whether the primability of this resistance depends on the plant's developmental stage. Resistance in non-flowering Arabidopsis thaliana against Pieris brassicae larvae is known to be primable by prior egg deposition on leaves. We investigated whether this priming effect is maintained in plants at the flowering stage. Larval performance assays revealed that flowering plants' resistance to herbivory was not primable by egg deposition. Accordingly, transcriptomes of flowering plants showed almost no response to eggs. In contrast, egg deposition on non-flowering plants enhanced the expression of genes induced by subsequent larval feeding. Strikingly, flowering plants showed constitutively high expression

SUBMITTER: Valsamakis G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9366327 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature