Prioritizing plant defence over growth through WRKY regulation facilitates infestation by non-target herbivores

  1. Ran Li
  2. Jin Zhang
  3. Jiancai Li
  4. Guoxin Zhou
  5. Qi Wang
  6. Wenbo Bian
  7. Matthias Erb
  8. Yonggen Lou  Is a corresponding author
  1. Zhejiang University, China
  2. University of Bern, Switzerland

Abstract

Plants generally respond to herbivore attack by increasing resistance and decreasing growth. This prioritization is achieved through the regulation of phytohormonal signalling networks. However, it remains unknown how this prioritization affects resistance against non-target herbivores. Here, we identify WRKY70 as a specific herbivore-induced, MAPK-regulated rice transcription factor that physically interacts with W-box motives and prioritizes defence over growth by positively regulating jasmonic acid (JA) and negatively regulating gibberellin (GA) biosynthesis upon attack by the chewing herbivore Chilo suppressalis. WRKY70-dependent JA biosynthesis is required for proteinase inhibitor (PI) activation and resistance against C. suppressalis. In contrast, WRKY70 induction increases plant susceptibility against the rice brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens. Experiments with GA-deficient rice lines identify WRKY70-dependent GA signalling as the causal factor in N. lugens susceptibility. Our study shows that prioritizing defence over growth leads to a significant resistance trade-off with important implications for the evolution and agricultural exploitation of plant immunity.

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Author details

  1. Ran Li

    State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Jin Zhang

    State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Jiancai Li

    State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Guoxin Zhou

    State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Qi Wang

    State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Wenbo Bian

    State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Matthias Erb

    Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Yonggen Lou

    State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    For correspondence
    yglou@zju.edu.cn
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Copyright

© 2015, Li et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Ran Li
  2. Jin Zhang
  3. Jiancai Li
  4. Guoxin Zhou
  5. Qi Wang
  6. Wenbo Bian
  7. Matthias Erb
  8. Yonggen Lou
(2015)
Prioritizing plant defence over growth through WRKY regulation facilitates infestation by non-target herbivores
eLife 4:e04805.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04805

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04805