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A gustatory receptor tuned to the steroid plant hormone brassinolide in Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae)

  1. Ke Yang
  2. Xin-Lin Gong
  3. Guo-Cheng Li
  4. Ling-Qiao Huang
  5. Chao Ning
  6. Chen-Zhu Wang  Is a corresponding author
  1. Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Research Article
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Cite this article as: eLife 2020;9:e64114 doi: 10.7554/eLife.64114

Abstract

Feeding and oviposition deterrents help phytophagous insects to identify host plants. The taste organs of phytophagous insects contain bitter gustatory receptors (GRs). To explore their function, the GRs in Plutella xylostella were analyzed. Through RNA sequencing and qPCR, we detected abundant PxylGr34 transcripts in the larval head and adult antennae. Functional analyses using the Xenopus oocyte expression system and 24 diverse phytochemicals showed that PxylGr34 is tuned to the canonical plant hormones brassinolide (BL) and 24-epibrassinolide (EBL). Electrophysiological analyses revealed that the medial sensilla styloconica of 4th instar larvae are responsive to BL and EBL. Dual-choice bioassays demonstrated that BL inhibits larval feeding and female oviposition. Knock-down of PxylGr34 by RNAi attenuates the taste responses to BL, and abolishes BL-induced feeding inhibition. These results increase our understanding of how herbivorous insects detect compounds that deter feeding and oviposition, and may be useful for designing plant hormone-based pest management strategies.

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Author details

  1. Ke Yang

    State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4138-3373

  2. Xin-Lin Gong

    State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Guo-Cheng Li

    State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Ling-Qiao Huang

    State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Chao Ning

    State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Chen-Zhu Wang

    State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    For correspondence
    czwang@ioz.ac.cn
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0418-8621

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (31830088)

  • Chen-Zhu Wang

National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFD0200400)

  • Chen-Zhu Wang

China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M660792)

  • Ke Yang

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

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of theInstitute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and followed The Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (protocol number: IOZ17090-A).

Reviewing Editor

  1. Kristin Scott, University of California, Berkeley, United States

Publication history

  1. Received: October 17, 2020
  2. Accepted: December 10, 2020
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: December 11, 2020 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: January 13, 2021 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2020, Yang 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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