GSE159085
Enhancement of leaf barriers and secondary metabolism improves Tomato endurance to Tuta absoluta
The leaf miner, Tuta absoluta, is a notorious destructive pest of tomato that causes important losses worldwide. Breeding of resistant/tolerant tomato cultivars could be an effective strategy for T. absoluta management but, despite the economic importance of tomato, very limited information is available about its response to this treat. To elucidate the defense mechanisms to the herbivore feeding a comparative analysis was performed between a tolerant and susceptible cultivated tomato at both morphological and at transcriptome level to highlight constitutive leaf barriers, molecular and biochemical mechanisms to counter the effect of T. absoluta attack. The tolerant genotype showed an enhanced constitutive barrier due to the higher density of trichomes and increased inducible reactions upon mild infestation thanks to the activation/repression of key transcription factors regulating a higher number of genes involved in cuticle formation and cell wall strength as well as of antinutritive enzymes, and genes involved in the production of chemical toxins and bioactive secondary metabolites. Overall, our findings provide an important foundation for further understanding the insect resistance mechanisms of resistant/tolerant varieties that can be exploited for developing T. absoluta tolerant cultivars, acting as important component of integrated pest management strategy for more sustainable production. Overall design: Transcriptome profiles of two tomato genotypes, a tolerant/partially resistant and a susceptible (in duplicate) to Tuta absoluta, were generated by RNA sequencing and compared contrasting for each genotype infested with T. absoluta vs not infested condition