title: Concerted biosynthesis of an insect elicitor of plant volatiles.
abstract: A variety of agricultural plant species, including corn, respond to insect herbivore damage by releasing large quantities of volatile compounds and, as a result, become highly attractive to parasitic wasps that attack the herbivores. An elicitor of plant volatiles, N-(17-hydroxylinolenoyl)-L-glutamine, named volicitin and isolated from beet armyworm caterpillars, is a key component in plant recognition of damage from insect herbivory. Chemical analysis of the oral secretion from beet armyworms that have fed on 13C-labeled corn seedlings established that the fatty acid portion of volicitin is plant derived whereas the 17-hydroxylation reaction and the conjugation with glutamine are carried out by the caterpillar by using glutamine of insect origin. Ironically, these insect-catalyzed chemical modifications to linolenic acid are critical for the biological activity that triggers the release of plant volatiles, which in turn attract natural enemies of the caterpillar.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Services, Center for Medical Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, 1700 Southwest 23rd Drive, Gainesville, FL 32608, USA.
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Paré
authors.forename: H T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Alborn
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Tumlinson