Immunity deteriorates with age in animals but comparatively little is known about the temporal regulation of plant resistance to herbivores. The phytohormone jasmonate (JA) is a key regulator of plant insect defense. Here, we show that the JA response decays progressively in Arabidopsis. We show that this decay is regulated by the miR156-targeted SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE9 (SPL9) group of proteins, which can interact with JA ZIM-domain (JAZ) proteins, including JAZ3. As SPL9 levels gradually increase, JAZ3 accumulates and the JA response is attenuated. We provide evidence that this pathway contributes to insect resistance in young plants. Interestingly however, despite the decay in JA response, older plants are still comparatively more resistant to both the lepidopteran generalist Helicoverpa armigera and the specialist Plutella xylostella, along with increased accumulation of glucosinolates. We propose a model whereby constitutive accumulation of defense compounds plays a role in compensating for age-related JA-response attenuation during plant maturation. Immunity deteriorates with age in animals but less is known about how aging affects immunity in plants. Here, Maoet al. show that responsiveness to the major insect defense hormone JA declines as plants age, but insect resistance still increases as plants accumulate secondary metabolites such as glucosinolates.
Jasmonate response decay and defense metabolite accumulation contributes to age-regulated dynamics of plant insect resistance
Ying-Bo Mao,Yao-Qian Liu,Dian-Yang Chen,Fang-Yan Chen,X. Fang,G. Hong,Ling-Jian Wang,Jia-Wei Wang,Xiao-Ya Chen
Published 2017 in Nature Communications
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- Publication year
2017
- Venue
Nature Communications
- Publication date
2017-01-09
- Fields of study
Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science
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- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
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