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Helicoverpa zea–Associated Gut Bacteria as Drivers in Shaping Plant Anti-herbivore Defense in Tomato

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A Correction to this article was published on 03 August 2023

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Abstract

Insect-associated bacteria can mediate the intersection of insect and plant immunity. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of single isolates or communities of gut-associated bacteria of Helicoverpa zea larvae on herbivore-induced defenses in tomato. We first identified bacterial isolates from the regurgitant of field-collected H. zea larvae by using a culture-dependent method and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We identified 11 isolates belonging to the families Enterobacteriaceae, Streptococcaceae, Yersiniaceae, Erwiniaceae, and unclassified Enterobacterales. Seven different bacterial isolates, namely Enterobacteriaceae-1, Lactococcus sp., Klebsiella sp. 1, Klebsiella sp. 3, Enterobacterales, Enterobacteriaceae-2, and Pantoea sp., were selected based on their phylogenetic relationships to test their impacts on insect-induced plant defenses. We found that the laboratory population of H. zea larvae inoculated with individual isolates did not induce plant anti-herbivore defenses, whereas larvae inoculated with a bacterial community (combination of the 7 bacterial isolates) triggered increased polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity in tomato, leading to retarded larval development. Additionally, field-collected H. zea larvae with an unaltered bacterial community in their gut stimulated higher plant defenses than the larvae with a reduced gut microbial community. In summary, our findings highlight the importance of the gut microbial community in mediating interactions between herbivores and their host plants.

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Data Availability

The sequence data of the 11 isolates were submitted to the NCBI database (accession number OP542430-OP542440).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety, the Ministry of Education of China, Institutes of Agricultural Science and Technology Development, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China

    Qinjian Pan

  2. Department of Entomology and Center for Chemical Ecology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, PA, 16802, USA

    Qinjian Pan & Gary W. Felton

  3. Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Ikkei Shikano

  4. Institute of Entomology, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China

    Tong-Xian Liu

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  1. Qinjian Pan
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  4. Gary W. Felton
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Contributions

TXL, GWF, and QJP designed the experiments. QJP performed experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript. IS analyzed the data and revised the manuscript. TXL and GWF revised the manuscript. All authors have approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qinjian Pan or Tong-Xian Liu.

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Pan, Q., Shikano, I., Liu, TX. et al. Helicoverpa zea–Associated Gut Bacteria as Drivers in Shaping Plant Anti-herbivore Defense in Tomato. Microb Ecol 86, 2173–2182 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-023-02232-8

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