title: Modulation of transcriptome and metabolome of tobacco by Arabidopsis transcription factor, AtMYB12, leads to insect resistance.
abstract: Flavonoids synthesized by the phenylpropanoid pathway participate in myriad physiological and biochemical processes in plants. Due to the diversity of secondary transformations and the complexity of the regulation of branched pathways, single gene strategies have not been very successful in enhancing the accumulation of targeted molecules. We have expressed an Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) transcription factor, AtMYB12, in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), which resulted in enhanced expression of genes involved in the phenylpropanoid pathway, leading to severalfold higher accumulation of flavonols. Global gene expression and limited metabolite profiling of leaves in the transgenic lines of tobacco revealed that AtMYB12 regulated a number of pathways, leading to flux availability for the phenylpropanoid pathway in general and flavonol biosynthesis in particular. The tobacco transgenic lines developed resistance against the insect pests Spodoptera litura and Helicoverpa armigera due to enhanced accumulation of rutin. Suppression of flavonol biosynthesis by artificial microRNA reversed insect resistance of the AtMYB12-expressing tobacco plants. Our study suggests that AtMYB12 can be strategically used for developing safer insect pest-resistant transgenic plants.
authors.affiliation: National Botanical Research Institute, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow 226 001, India.
authors.forename: Prashant
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Misra
authors.forename: Ashutosh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.forename: Manish
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chandrashekar
authors.forename: Om Prakash
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Sidhu
authors.forename: Mehar Hasan
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Asif
authors.forename: Debasis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chakrabarty
authors.forename: Pradhyumna Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Prabodh Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Trivedi
authors.forename: Pravendra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nath
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tuli
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D055442:Metabolome; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins