Jack C. Schultz, Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri
Ramesh Raina, Department of Biology, Syracuse University
A. Daniel Jones, Department of Chemistry, Penn State Universtiy

Project Summary

This 2-year pilot project is identifying the coordinated functions of 'stress response genes' in plant defense responses to insects. Microarrays of fully-subtracted libraries of genes responsive to biotic and abiotic stresses and critical genes in the biosynthetic pathways of defense metabolites are being used to profile plant responses to chewing and sucking insects and bacterial pathogens. Multivariate statistical treatments link array results to defense metabolite response profiles for the same plants, providing hypotheses about how gene expression translates into the plant resistance phenotype. These hypotheses will eventually be tested in bioassays using knockouts of specific steps in the coordinated response to insects. The project includes cooperation with an existing Arabidopsis 2010 project at Washington State University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, in Jena, Germany.

This project will discover:

• Functional molecular traits required for responses to insects
• How plant responses to insects are distinct from responses to pathogens
• How molecular events translate into biochemical phenotypes relevant to defenses