title: ABC transporter functions as a pacemaker for sequestration of plant glucosides in leaf beetles.
abstract: Plant-herbivore interactions dominate the planet's terrestrial ecology. When it comes to host-plant specialization, insects are among the most versatile evolutionary innovators, able to disarm multiple chemical plant defenses. Sequestration is a widespread strategy to detoxify noxious metabolites, frequently for the insect's own benefit against predation. In this study, we describe the broad-spectrum ATP-binding cassette transporter CpMRP of the poplar leaf beetle, Chrysomela populi as the first candidate involved in the sequestration of phytochemicals in insects. CpMRP acts in the defensive glands of the larvae as a pacemaker for the irreversible shuttling of pre-selected metabolites from the hemolymph into defensive secretions. Silencing CpMRP in vivo creates a defenseless phenotype, indicating its role in the secretion process is crucial. In the defensive glands of related leaf beetle species, we identified sequences similar to CpMRP and assume therefore that exocrine gland-based defensive strategies, evolved by these insects to repel their enemies, rely on ABC transporters as a key element. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01096.001.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Anja S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.forename: Wilhelm
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Boland
authors.forename: Antje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Burse
mesh_terms: D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000378:metabolism*; D005960:Glucosides / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters; D005960:Glucosides
keywords: Chrysomela lapponica; Chrysomela populi; Phaedon cochleariae; RNA interference; chemical defense; fluorescence microscopy