The decoration of specialized metabolites influences stylar development

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Abstract

Plants produce many different specialized (secondary) metabolites that function in solving ecological challenges; few are known to function in growth or other primary processes. 17-hydroxygeranylinalool diterpene glycosides (DTGs) are abundant herbivory-induced, structurally diverse and commonly malonylated defense metabolites in Nicotiana attenuata plants. By identifying and silencing a malonyltransferase, NaMaT1, involved in DTG malonylation, we found that DTG malonylation percentages are normally remarkably uniform, but when disrupted, result in DTG-dependent reduced floral style lengths, which in turn result from reduced stylar cell sizes, IAA contents, and YUC activity; phenotypes that could be restored by IAA supplementation or by silencing the DTG pathway. Moreover, the Nicotiana genus-specific JA-deficient short-style phenotype also results from alterations in DTG malonylation patterns. Decorations of plant specialized metabolites can be tuned to remarkably uniform levels, and this regulation plays a central but poorly understood role in controlling the development of specific plant parts, such as floral styles.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files

The following previously published data sets were used

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Jiancai Li

Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4417-7612
Meredith C Schuman

Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-3159-3534
Rayko Halitschke

Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1109-8782
Xiang Li

Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Han Guo

Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Veit Grabe

Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0736-2771
Austin Hammer

Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, United States

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Ian T Baldwin

Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

For correspondence
baldwin@ice.mpg.de

Competing interests
Ian T Baldwin, Senior editor, eLife.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5371-2974

Funding

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Open-access funding)

Ian T Baldwin

H2020 European Research Council (293926)

Ian T Baldwin

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

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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.