Systemin and jasmonic acid regulate constitutive and herbivore-induced systemic volatile emissions in tomato, Solanum lycopersicum

Transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants that overexpress the Prosystemin gene (35S PS) and plants with a mutation in the JA biosynthetic pathway (def1) are known to exhibit a constitutive or reduced wound response respectively Here it is demonstrated that several independent 35S PS lines emit high levels of specific volatiles in addition to increased accumulation of proteinase inhibitors (Pis) Furthermore the temporal dynamics of systemically Induced volatile compounds including green-leaf volatiles terpenes and shikimic acid-derivatives from 35S PS and dell plants in response to herbivore wounding and treatment with Jasmonic acid (JA) are described Application of JA Induced defense protein accumulation and volatile emissions in wild type plants but did not further increase systemic volatile emissions from 355 PS plants Wounding by Manduca sexta larvae induced synthesis of defense proteins and emission of volatiles in wild type plants but not in def1 plants Application of jasmonic acid restored the local and systemic accumulation of defense proteins in dell as well as enhanced herbivore-induced volatile emissions These results provide strong support for the role of prosysteminand JA-signaling in the regulation of volatile emissions in tomato plants (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved