Poster: Plant insect-nematode interactions

Abs # 491: Molecular Insights into Plant Response to Aphids

Presenter:	Pegadaraju, Venkatramana -, vpe5858@ksu.edu
Authors	Pegadaraju, Venkatramana - (A)   Knepper, Caleb  (A)   Patankar, Aparna  (A)   Shah, Jyoti  (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Division of Biology,Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Program,Kansas State University

Phloem -feeding insects like aphids feed on a variety of crop plants and limit plant productivity. In addition they are vectors for important plant viruses. The currently available plant protection strategies employ tolerance as a major trait due to the lack of understanding on plant resistance mechanisms to aphids. Efforts to enhance plant resistance to aphids have been hampered by the lack of sufficient understanding of mechanisms of plant defense against aphids .Towards this we have successfully established a model plant-aphid system consisting of Arabidopsis and green peach aphid (GPA; Myzus persicae) to study plant responses to aphids. Microarray analysis and studies with Arabidopsis mutants compromised in defense to pathogens suggest some overlap between plant responses to pathogens and aphids. However, generally, plants seem to employ novel mechanisms against aphids. Aphid feeding on Arabidopsis activates genes that are associated with the maintenance of source-sink balances in plants. In addition, expression of Arabidopsis genes that are regulated by cytokinins and those involved in sugar metabolism and transport are altered in response to GPA feeding. We have taken a candidate gene approach to successfully identify Arabidopsis mutants on which GPA fecundity is altered. Proteins encoded by these genes are involved in lipid metabolism in Arabidopsis. An electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI/MS-MS) technology is being used to profile changes in plant lipid composition, in these Arabidopsis mutants to study the role of lipids in Arabidopsis response to GPA feeding.