Whitefly hijacks a plant detoxification gene that neutralizes plant toxins
Whitefly hijacks a plant detoxification gene that neutralizes plant toxins
复制标题
白粉虱劫持了中和植物毒素的植物解毒基因
DOI：
10.1016/j.cell.2021.02.014
复制
发表时间：
2021-04-01
期刊：
影响因子：
64.5
通讯作者：
Zhang, Youjun
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Xia, Jixing;Guo, Zhaojiang;Zhang, Youjun
植物用大量有毒的次级代谢产物保护自己，但大多数植物都是昆虫的食物。使食草昆虫能够抵抗植物防御的进化过程在很大程度上仍然未知。烟粉虱（Bemisia tabaci）是一种世界性的、高度多食性的农业害虫，其携带几种严重的植物致病病毒，并且是探索涉及克服植物防御的分子机制的极好模型。在这里，我们表明，通过一个特殊的水平基因转移事件，粉虱获得了植物来源的酚葡糖苷丙二酰转移酶基因BtPMaT1。该基因使粉虱能够中和酚类糖苷。这一点通过转基因番茄植物产生小干扰RNA来沉默BtPMaT1，从而削弱粉虱的解毒能力而得到证实。这些发现揭示了一个进化的场景，即食草动物利用其宿主植物的遗传工具包来发展对植物防御的抗性，以及如何利用这一点来保护作物。
Plants protect themselves with a vast array of toxic secondary metabolites, yet most plants serve as food for insects. The evolutionary processes that allow herbivorous insects to resist plant defenses remain largely unknown. The whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a cosmopolitan, highly polyphagous agricultural pest that vectors several serious plant pathogenic viruses and is an excellent model to probe the molecular mechanisms involved in overcoming plant defenses. Here, we show that, through an exceptional horizontal gene transfer event, the whitefly has acquired the plant-derived phenolic glucoside malonyltransferase gene BtPMaT1. This gene enables whiteflies to neutralize phenolic glucosides. This was confirmed by genetically transforming tomato plants to produce small interfering RNAs that silence BtPMaT1, thus impairing the whiteflies' detoxification ability. These findings reveal an evolutionary scenario whereby herbivores harness the genetic toolkit of their host plants to develop resistance to plant defenses and how this can be exploited for crop protection.