Cytokinin transfer by a free-living mirid to Nicotiana attenuata recapitulates a strategy of endophytic insects
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany
Abstract
Endophytic insects provide the textbook examples of herbivores that manipulate their host plant's physiology, putatively altering source/sink relationships by transferring cytokinins (CK) to create 'green islands' that increase the nutritional value of infested tissues. However, unambiguous demonstrations of CK transfer are lacking. Here we show that feeding by the free-living herbivore Tupiocoris notatus on Nicotiana attenuata is characterized by stable nutrient levels, increased CK levels and alterations in CK-related transcript levels in attacked leaves, in striking similarity to endophytic insects. Using 15N-isotope labeling, we demonstrate that the CK N6-isopentenyladenine (IP) is transferred from insects to plants via their oral secretions. In the field, T. notatus preferentially attacks leaves with transgenically increased CK levels; plants with abrogated CK-perception are less tolerant of T. notatus feeding damage. We infer that this free-living insect uses CKs to manipulate source/sink relationships to increase food quality and minimize the fitness consequences of its feeding.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are available on Dryad Digital Repository
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Data from: Cytokinin transfer by a free-living mirid to Nicotiana attenuata recapitulates a strategy of endophytic insectsAvailable at Dryad Digital Repository under a CC0 Public Domain Dedication.
Article and author information
Author details
Cristina Maria Crava
Meredith C Schuman
Funding
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Open-access funding)
- Christoph Brütting
- Cristina Maria Crava
- Martin Schäfer
- Meredith C Schuman
- Stefan Meldau
- Nora Adam
- Ian T Baldwin
European Commission (ERC Advanced Grant no. 293926)
- Christoph Brütting
- Meredith C Schuman
- Stefan Meldau
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Collaborative Research Centre)
- Cristina Maria Crava
- Martin Schäfer
German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research
- Nora Adam
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2018, Brütting 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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Cytokinin transfer by a free-living mirid to Nicotiana attenuata recapitulates a strategy of endophytic insects
eLife 7:e36268.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.36268
