Effect of prior drought and pathogen stress onArabidopsistranscriptome changes to caterpillar herbivory

• DOI: 10.1111/nph.13847
• Publication Date: 2016-02-05T10:32:33Z
• Authors: Nelson H. Davila ...; Silvia Coolen; Pingping Huang; Edouard Severing; Marcel C. van Verk; Richard Hickman; Alexander H. J. W...; Martin de Vos; Marcel Prins; Joop J. A. van Loon; Mark G. M. Aarts; Saskia C. M. van ...; Corné M. J. Pieterse; Marcel Dicke
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; abiotic stress; insect herbivory; Arabidopsis; Botrytis cinerea; 03 medical and health sciences; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Stress, Physiological; Taverne; Animals; Herbivory; Combined stresses; Plant Diseases; 2. Zero hunger; Insect herbivory; Multiple stresses; 15. Life on land; Abiotic stress; RNAseq; 6. Clean water; Droughts; combined stresses; Pieris rapae; multiple stresses; Botrytis; Transcriptome; transcriptome; Butterflies; 016-3939

SummaryIn nature, plants are exposed to biotic and abiotic stresses that often occur simultaneously. Therefore, plant responses to combinations of stresses are most representative of how plants respond to stresses.We usedRNAseq to assess temporal changes in the transcriptome ofArabidopsis thalianato herbivory byPieris rapaecaterpillars, either alone or in combination with prior exposure to drought or infection with the necrotrophic fungusBotrytis cinerea.Pre‐exposure to drought stress orBotrytisinfection resulted in a significantly different timing of the caterpillar‐induced transcriptional changes. Additionally, the combination of drought andP. rapaeinduced an extensive downregulation ofA. thalianagenes involved in defence against pathogens. Despite a more substantial growth reduction observed for plants exposed to drought plusP. rapaefeeding compared withP. rapaefeeding alone, this did not affect weight increase of this specialist caterpillar.Plants respond to combined stresses with phenotypic and transcriptional changes that differ from the single stress situation. The effect of a previous exposure to drought orB. cinereainfection on transcriptional changes to caterpillars is largely overridden by the stress imposed by caterpillars, indicating that plants shift their response to the most recent stress applied.