title: Suppression of terpenoid synthesis in plants by a virus promotes its mutualism with vectors.
abstract: Vectors often perform better on plants infected with pathogens, and this promotes the spread of pathogens. However, few studies have examined how plant defensive compounds mediate such mutualistic relationships. Although tobacco plants are relatively poor host plants for the whitefly Bemisia tabaci, tobacco's suitability to the whitefly was substantially increased when infected by the begomovirus Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus. The change in suitability was associated with induced terpenoid synthesis in whitefly-infested plants and repressed terpenoid synthesis in virus-infected plants. Elevation of terpenoid levels via exogenous stem applications reduced the performance of whiteflies. In contrast, suppression of terpenoid synthesis via gene silencing improved whitefly fitness. By integrating genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics, this study demonstrated that virus infection depleted the terpenoid-mediated plant defence against whiteflies, thereby favouring vector-virus mutualism. These data suggest that plant terpenoids play a key role in shaping vector-pathogen relationships.
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory of Agricultural Entomology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. jbluan@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Jun-Bo
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Luan
authors.forename: Dan-Mei
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Linda L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Walling
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yu-Jun
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shu-Sheng
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D053839:Begomovirus / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000502:physiology*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010935:Plant Diseases; D011158:Population Growth; D013559:Symbiosis; D013729:Terpenes / Q000378:metabolism*; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D013729:Terpenes