Abstract
There is increasing evidence that acylsugars deter insect pests and plant virus vectors, including the western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), vector of tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV). Acylsugars are sugar-polyesters composed of saturated, un-saturated, and variously branched short and long chain fatty acids (FAs) esterified to a glucose (acylglucose) or sucrose (acylsucrose) moiety. We sought to understand how acylsucrose amount and composition of associated FA profiles interacted to mediate resistance to WFT oviposition and TSWV inoculation on tomato leaves. Towards this goal, we examined WFT oviposition and TSWV inoculation behavior on tomato lines bred to exude varying amounts of acylsucrose in association with diverse FA profiles. Our data show that as acylsucrose amounts increased, WFT egg-laying (oviposition) decreased and TSWV inoculation was suppressed. Western flower thrips also responded to FA profiles that included iC4, iC11, nC12 and nC10 FA. These findings support improving acylsugar-mediated resistance against WFT by breeding tomatoes exuding greater amounts of acylsucrose associated with specific FA profiles. We show that increasing acylsucrose amount output by type IV trichomes and selecting for particular FA profiles through advanced breeding profoundly affects WFT behavior in ways that benefit management of WFT as direct pests and as TSWV vectors.
Highlights
There is increasing evidence that acylsugars deter insect pests and plant virus vectors, including the western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), vector of tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV)
We analyzed exudates for the specific plants used in our experiments to control for the possibility that acylsugar chemical composition could vary with growing conditions and because we were interested in understanding WFT responses to varying acylsucrose amounts and fatty acids (FAs) profiles
Our data show that increased acylsucrose amount and specific acylsugar FA profiles interact to mediate resistance to WFT oviposition and TSWV inoculation on leaves
Summary
There is increasing evidence that acylsugars deter insect pests and plant virus vectors, including the western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), vector of tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV). Strategies to reduce WFT oviposition can prevent population increases limiting direct damage to crops, as well as enhancing management of TSWV by reducing production of infective adults that inoculate new host plants and cause secondary spread of the virus. Specialized glandular trichomes on aerial portions of tomato plants produce and exude secondary metabolites called acylsugars[20,21,22], which cause insect-repellent and antibiosis effects that affect behavior of several species of important tomato pests, including WFT20–29 These complex molecules are sugar-polyesters composed of saturated, un-saturated, and variously branched short and long chain FAs, esterified to a glucose (acylglucose) or sucrose (acylsucrose) moiety[30,31,32]. The acylsugars of CU071026, are sufficient to suppress silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), oviposition on plants in field cages and WFT oviposition in sepals[26,29]
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