Abstract
Insect pests represent a major global challenge to important agricultural crops. Insecticides are often applied to combat such pests, but their use has caused additional challenges such as environmental contamination and human health issues. Over millions of years, plants have evolved natural defense mechanisms to overcome insect pests and pathogens. One such mechanism is the production of natural repellents or specialized metabolites like glucosinolates. There are three types of glucosinolates produced in the order Brassicales: aliphatic, indole, and benzenic glucosinolates. Upon insect herbivory, a “mustard oil bomb” consisting of glucosinolates and their hydrolyzing enzymes (myrosinases) is triggered to release toxic degradation products that act as insect deterrents. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of glucosinolate biosynthesis, the “mustard oil bomb”, and how these metabolites function in plant defense against pathogens and insects. Understanding these defense mechanisms will not only allow us to harness the benefits of this group of natural metabolites for enhancing pest control in Brassicales crops but also to transfer the “mustard oil bomb” to non-glucosinolate producing crops to boost their defense and thereby reduce the use of chemical pesticides.
Highlights
Glucosinolates, once referred to as mustard oil glucosides, have long been part of human life and agriculture due to their influence on the distinctive flavor and aroma of brassicaceous vegetables, involvement in plant defense, and auxin homeostasis [1,2,3]
We describe recent advances made in the biosynthesis of glucosinolates, the “mustard glucosinolates, the “mustard oil bomb”, and how they function in plant defense against pathogens oil bomb”, and how they function in plant defense against pathogens and insects
Mutation of little nuclei 1 (LINC1) decreased expression of JA transcriptional repressor jasmonate zim-domain (JAZ) genes and enhanced glucosinolate production upon pathogen infection [112]. This result is consistent with the observed overexpression of glucosinolate biosynthetic genes in A. thaliana jaz quintuple mutant [113,114], indicating the importance of JA signaling in glucosinolate biosynthesis and plant defense [76,111,115]
Summary
Glucosinolates, once referred to as mustard oil glucosides, have long been part of human life and agriculture due to their influence on the distinctive flavor and aroma of brassicaceous vegetables, involvement in plant defense, and auxin homeostasis [1,2,3]. Glucosinolates occur in members of the Brassicaceae family including cabbage, broccoli, and mustard [4,5] They occur in sixteen other plant families for a total of 4700 species [6]. Glucosinolates coexist with myrosinases, which hydrolyze myrosinases, which hydrolyze glucosinolates into different bioactive degradation products [22,23]. Glucosinolates into different bioactive degradation products [22,23] (Figure 1). We describe recent advances made in the biosynthesis of glucosinolates, the “mustard glucosinolates, the “mustard oil bomb”, and how they function in plant defense against pathogens oil bomb”, and how they function in plant defense against pathogens and insects. The structures marked epithionitrile and oxazolidine-2-thione represent simple nitrile. The structures marked epithionitrile and oxazolidine-2-thione represent examples of examples of these product types, depending on specific R-groups in the precursor glucosinolates. ESM, epithiospecifier modifier; ESP, epithiospecifier protein; GSH, glutathione; GSTU13, glutathione S-transferase U13; MBP, myrosinase binding protein; MyAP, myrosinase associated protein; NSP, nitrile specifier protein; TFP, thiocyanate-forming proteins
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