Volatile DMNT directly protects plants against Plutella xylostella by disrupting the peritrophic matrix barrier in insect midgut

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.63938
• Publication Date: 2021-02-18T13:03:06Z
• Authors: Chen Chen; Hongyi Chen; Shijie Huang; Taoshan Jiang; Chuanhong Wang; Zhen Tao; Chen He; Qingfeng Tang; Peijin Li
• Keywords: Matrix (chemical analysis)

Insect pests negatively affect crop quality and yield; identifying new methods to protect crops against insects therefore has important agricultural applications. Our analysis of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants showed that overexpression pentacyclic triterpene synthase 1, encoding the key biosynthetic enzyme for natural plant product (3E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene (DMNT), led a significant resistance major insect pest, Plutella xylostella. DMNT treatment severely damaged peritrophic matrix (PM), physical barrier isolating food pathogens from midgut wall cells. repressed expression PxMucin in cells, knocking down resulted PM rupture P. xylostella death. A 16S RNA survey revealed significantly disrupted microbiota populations microbes were essential DMNT-induced killing. Therefore, we propose assists killing These findings may provide novel approach protection