Identification of the Flavone-Inducible Counter-Defense Genes and Their cis-Elements in Helicoverpa armigera

Zhongyuan Deng; Yuting Zhang; Liying Fang; Min Zhang; Lixiang Wang; Xinzhi Ni; Xianchun Li

doi:10.3390/toxins15060365

Identification of the Flavone-Inducible Counter-Defense Genes and Their cis-Elements in Helicoverpa armigera

Toxins (Basel). 2023 May 29;15(6):365. doi: 10.3390/toxins15060365.

Authors

Zhongyuan Deng¹, Yuting Zhang¹, Liying Fang¹, Min Zhang^{1

2}, Lixiang Wang¹, Xinzhi Ni³, Xianchun Li⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
² School of Life Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
³ USDA-ARS, Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit, University of Georgia-Tifton Campus, Tifton, GA 31793, USA.
⁴ Department of Entomology and BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.

Abstract

Flavone is widely found in plants and plays an important role in plant defense against pests. Many pests, such as Helicoverpa armigera, use flavone as a cue to upregulate counter-defense genes for detoxification of flavone. Yet the spectrum of the flavone-inducible genes and their linked cis-regulatory elements remains unclear. In this study, 48 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found by RNA-seq. These DEGs were mainly concentrated in the retinol metabolism and drug metabolism-cytochrome P450 pathways. Further in silico analysis of the promoter regions of 24 upregulated genes predicted two motifs through MEME and five previously characterized cis-elements including CRE, TRE, EcRE, XRE-AhR and ARE. Functional analysis of the two predicted motifs and two different versions of ARE (named ARE1 and ARE2) in the promoter region of the flavone-inducible carboxylesterase gene CCE001j verified that the two motifs and ARE2 are not responsible for flavone induction of H. armigera counter-defense genes, whereas ARE1 is a new xenobiotic response element to flavone (XRE-Fla) and plays a decisive role in flavone induction of CCE001j. This study is of great significance for further understanding the antagonistic interaction between plants and herbivorous insects.

Keywords: ARE; Helicoverpa armigera; carboxylesterase; cis-transcriptional regulation; detoxification metabolism; flavone.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / genetics
Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / metabolism
Flavones* / metabolism
Larva
Moths* / genetics
Moths* / metabolism

Substances

Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System
Flavones

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (hatchgrant ARZT-1360890-H31-164 and multi-state grant ARZT-1370400-R31-172 (NC246)), the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC; Henan Joint major grant No. U200420044), Key Scientific Research Projects of Colleges and Universities in Henan Province (No. 21A210027), and the State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology Open Fund (No. CB2020A06).