Biosynthesis and Emission of Stress-Induced Volatile Terpenes in Roots and Leaves of Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.)

Muchlinski, Andrew; Chen, Xinlu; Lovell, John T.; Köllner, Tobias G.; Pelot, Kyle A.; Zerbe, Philipp; Ruggiero, Meredith; Callaway, LeMar; Laliberte, Suzanne; Chen, Feng; Tholl, Dorothea

doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.01144

Biosynthesis and Emission of Stress-Induced Volatile Terpenes in Roots and Leaves of Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.)

Journal Article · Thu Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Frontiers in Plant Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.01144· OSTI ID:1628296

Muchlinski, Andrew ^[1]; Chen, Xinlu ^[2]; Lovell, John T. ^[3]; Köllner, Tobias G. ^[4]; Pelot, Kyle A. ^[5]; Zerbe, Philipp ^[5]; Ruggiero, Meredith ^[6]; Callaway, LeMar ^[6]; Laliberte, Suzanne ^[6]; Chen, Feng ^[2]; Tholl, Dorothea ^[6]

Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences; DOE/OSTI
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Plant Sciences
Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, Huntsville, AL (United States). Genome Sequencing Ctr.
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena (Germany). Dept. of Biochemistry
Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States). Dept. of Plant Biology
Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a perennial C4 grass, represents an important species in natural and anthropogenic grasslands of North America. Its resilience to abiotic and biotic stress has made switchgrass a preferred bioenergy crop. However, little is known about the mechanisms of resistance of switchgrass against pathogens and herbivores. Volatile compounds such as terpenes have important activities in plant direct and indirect defense. Here, we show that switchgrass leaves emit blends of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes upon feeding by the generalist insect herbivore Spodoptera frugiperda (fall armyworm) and in a systemic response to the treatment of roots with defense hormones. Belowground application of methyl jasmonate also induced the release of volatile terpenes from roots. To correlate the emission of terpenes with the expression and activity of their corresponding biosynthetic genes, we identified a gene family of 44 monoterpene and sesquiterpene synthases (mono- and sesqui-TPSs) of the type-a, type-b, type-g, and type-e subfamilies, of which 32 TPSs were found to be functionally active in vitro. The TPS genes are distributed over the K and N subgenomes with clusters occurring on several chromosomes. Synteny analysis revealed syntenic networks for approximately 30–40% of the switchgrass TPS genes in the genomes of Panicum hallii, Setaria italica, and Sorghum bicolor, suggesting shared TPS ancestry in the common progenitor of these grass lineages. Eighteen switchgrass TPS genes were substantially induced upon insect and hormone treatment and the enzymatic products of nine of these genes correlated with compounds of the induced volatile blends. In accordance with the emission of volatiles, TPS gene expression was induced systemically in response to belowground treatment, whereas this response was not observed upon aboveground feeding of S. frugiperda. Our results demonstrate complex above and belowground responses of induced volatile terpene metabolism in switchgrass and provide a framework for more detailed investigations of the function of terpenes in stress resistance in this monocot crop

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1628296

Journal Information:: Frontiers in Plant Science, Journal Name: Frontiers in Plant Science Vol. 10; ISSN 1664-462X

Publisher:: Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Constitutive and Induced Defenses to Herbivory in Above- and Belowground Plant Tissues Kaplan, Ian; Halitschke, Rayko; Kessler, André Figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3300167.v1	collection	January 2016
Transcriptional analysis of defense mechanisms in upland tetraploid switchgrass to greenbugs [Supplemental Data] Donze-Reiner, Teresa; Palmer, Nathan; Scully, Erin figshare-Supplementary information for journal article at DOI: 10.1186/s12870-017-0998-2, 6 files https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3694408.v1	dataset	February 2017

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