PLANT DEFENSE

PATHWAYS


Plants respond to attacks by
herbivores and pathogens
Plants use defense systems to deter herbivory, prevent
infection, and combat pathogens
Plants counter excessive herbivory with physical
defenses such as thorns and defenses such as distasteful
or toxic compounds
Plants damaged by insects can release volatile
chemicals to warn other plants of the same species
These volatile molecules can also function as an early
warning system for nearby plants of the same species.

Plant defense traits

Plant use variety of defenses:-
Mechanical (toughness, spines)
Chemical (alkaloids,phenolics,terpenoids etc.)
Developmental
Phenological defense


Defenses may also be classified with
reference to their production

Constitutive defence produced by and present
in the plant irrespective of attack

Induced defence produced by and present in
the plant in response to attack

both can be structural and chemical
Resistance traits
Direct
Indirect
PLANT HORMONES
Auxins
Gibberellins
Jasmonate
Salicylic
acid
Ethylene
Signaling hormones regulate the
plant immune system activity

Salicylic acid
Jasmonic acid
Ethylene
There can be substantial cross-talk between these
pathways
They play an important role in basal and gene-to-
gene resistance to pathogens and herbivores

Salicylic acid
Phenolic phytohormone
Role in development,photosynthesis,ion uptake
Involved in endogenous signaling
role in resistance by inducing production of PGPR
and induce defence against biotrophic pathogen
Involved in SAR
can be converted into volatile ester methyl salicylate

COOH
OH
Jasmonic acid
Member of class jasmonate
Regulating plant responses and development
Role in response to wounding of plants and SAR
induces the transcription of many genes involved in
plant defense
protein products of genes have anti microbial and anti
fungal activity
Induce defense against necrotrophic pathogen
Jasmonic acid turns on genes for proteinase inhibitor
Converted to variety of derivatives like methyl
jasmonate (esters)
Ethylene
2 4

Gaseous and ripening hormone
Present in all higher plants
Regulatory function in growth and
development
Stimulators or inhibitors
Resistance (R) Genes
These are in plant genomes that convey plant
disease resistance against pathogens by
producing R proteins
The R protein interacts directly with an Avr
gene (Avirulence gene) product of a pathogen
confers resistance against specific pathogens
Can be transfer from one plant to another
Hypersensitive Response (HR)
A mechanism, used by plants, to prevent the
spread of infection by microbial pathogens
Burst of oxygen reactive species around
infection site
Accumulation of Salicylic Acid (SA)
Restrict pathogen from spreading
Rapid and local

Pathogen-Related (PR) Genes
Antimicrobial properties
Many identified
Categorized according to activity
Examples
PR-2 : beta-1,3-glucanase
PR-3 : chitinase
PR-12: defensin

Systemic resistance in plant
SAR
Broad range resistance
Secondary response
Initial infection results in
formation of necrotic lesion
Leads to PR gene expression
Its activation requires
accumulation of SA
Molecular signal
transduction pathway that
is identified by a gene
called NIM1, NPR1 or SAI1 i
n Arabidopsis thaliana


ISR
Plant responses to plant
growth promoting
rhizobacteria
It does not depend on SA
and PR
It requires both JA and ET
signalling
SAR regulatory protein NPR1
is required

Case study of: Arabidopsis thaliana
against SLWF nymphal development
Silverleaf whitefly
Generalist
Infests wide variety of crop plants
e.g.Brassicaceae members
Phloem feeders
Have different salivary components than
aphids
Mutant and transgenic lines
To test the role of these defense pathways in
basal resistance following five Arabidopsis SA
and JA mutant/transgenic lines were utilized:-
npr1
cim10
coi1
cev1
NahG

SLWF nymphal development on
mutant, transgenic and wild type
plants
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
WT cim10 cev1 coi1 npr1 NahG
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
series 4
SA,JA and ET defense transcript in
response to SLWF instar feeding
Transcriptome analysis shows that SA-dependent
pathway is induced while JA shows no change

Arabidopsis respond to SLWF more like a pathogen

SA responsive gene transcripts accumulated locally
PR1,BGL2,PR5,SID2,EDS5,PAD4

And systemically
PR1,BGL2,PR5

JA/ET dependent RNAs
PDF1.2,VSP1,HEL,THI2.1,FAD3,ERS1,ERF1

Were repressed in infested leaves

Enhanced JA responses and not SA defenses were responsible
for delaying the nymphal development

When npr1 plants treated with MejA,dramatic delay in
nymphal development was observed

SLWFs may provide larger quantities of signals to their host
plant

SLWFs introduced inhibitors to prevent JA activation
SLWF development on MejA treated
plants
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Results
Showed that SLWF repressed,JA regulated
defenses were associated with basal defense
to the SLWF
Suppressed JA regulated defenses were
important in slowing nymphal development
Delay in insect development is an important
resistance mechanism