Repeated mechanical damage enhanced Aquilaria sinensis resistance to Heortia vitessoides through jasmonic acid

Yingying Chen; Shenghua Liang; Shuyao Wang; Baocai Li; Kun Wang; Yongjin Zhu; Risheng Yang; Xin Hao; Zhuoying Yang; Yingbai Shen; Rihong Jiang; Kaixiang Li

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1183002

Repeated mechanical damage enhanced Aquilaria sinensis resistance to Heortia vitessoides through jasmonic acid

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Aug 8:14:1183002. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1183002. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yingying Chen^{1

2}, Shenghua Liang¹, Shuyao Wang², Baocai Li¹, Kun Wang¹, Yongjin Zhu¹, Risheng Yang¹, Xin Hao³, Zhuoying Yang¹, Yingbai Shen^{1

2}, Rihong Jiang¹, Kaixiang Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Non-wood Forests Cultivation and Utilization, Guangxi Xylophyta Spices Research Center of Engineering Technology, Illicium and Cinnamomum Engineering Technology Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Guangxi Forestry Research Institute, Nanning, China.
² College of Biological Sciences and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
³ National Engineering Laboratory of Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agriculture University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Introduction: The leaf-chewing pest Heortia vitessoides severely threatens the growth and development of Aquilaria sinensis. In our previous study, we found that mechanical damage (MD) to stem enhanced A. sinensis sapling resistance to H. vitessoides larvae.

Methods: To reveal the defense mechanisms underlying this observation, we analyzed the types and contents of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), phytohormone contents, and expression of phytohormone-related genes in response to MD and herbivory wounding(HW).

Results: Here, we identified several VOCs, such as the pesticides fenobucarb and 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol, in mature leaf (ML) of MD-treated plants. Compared with salicylic acid (SA) or the ethylene (ET) pathway, jasmonic acid (JA) content and JA-related genes were more strongly upregulated. Interestingly, we found a dramatic difference between JA-related upstream and downstream genes expression in YL and ML, which confirmed that JA-Ile accumulation in MD-ML and HW-ML could be derived from local damaged site.

Discussion: Taken together, we provide evidence that the JA pathway plays a dominant role in the A. sinensis response to MD and HW.

Keywords: Aquilaria sinensis; Heortia vitessoides; defense response; herbivory wounding; mechanical damage.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Program of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Guangxi Forestry Research Institute (no. Linke 2021-01), Guangxi Natural Science Foundation Program (2023GXNSFBA026168) the Foundation of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Non-wood Forests Cultivation and Utilization (no. JA-20-02-03), Guangxi Key Research and Development (no. Guike AB22080082), the Distinguished Expert Fund of Guangxi (no. Guirencaitongzi 〔2019〕03), the Survey and Collection of Germplasm Resources of Woody & Herbaceous Plants in Guangxi, China (GXFS-2021-34), and the Program of Guangxi Postdoctoral Innovation Support (No. GSTF〔2020〕21).