Recognition of conserved microbial molecules activates immune responses in plants, a process termed pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). Similarly, insect eggs trigger defenses that impede egg development or attract predators, but information on the nature of egg-associated elicitors is scarce. We performed an unbiased bioactivity-guided fractionation of eggs of the butterfly Pieris brassicae. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry of active fractions led to the identification of phosphatidylcholines (PCs). PCs are released from insect eggs, and they induce salicylic acid and H2O2 accumulation, defense gene expression and cell death in Arabidopsis, all of which constitute a hallmark of PTI. Active PCs contain primarily C16 to C18-fatty acyl chains with various levels of desaturation, suggesting a relatively broad ligand specificity of cell-surface receptor(s). The finding of PCs as egg-associated molecular patterns (EAMPs) illustrates the acute ability of plants to detect conserved immunogenic patterns from their enemies, even from seemingly passive structures such as eggs.
Phosphatidylcholines from Pieris brassicae eggs activate an immune response in Arabidopsis
E. Stahl,T. Brillatz,Emerson Ferreira Queiroz,L. Marcourt,André Schmiesing,Olivier Hilfiker,Isabelle Riezman,H. Riezman,J. Wolfender,P. Reymond
Published 2020 in eLife
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- Publication year
2020
- Venue
eLife
- Publication date
2020-09-28
- Fields of study
Biology, Medicine, Chemistry, Environmental Science
- Identifiers
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- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
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