Gut Bacteria May Be Involved in Interactions between Plants, Herbivores and Their Predators: Microbial Biosynthesis of N-Acylglutamine Surfactants as Elicitors of Plant Volatiles
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D. Spiteller
Abstract
N-Acylamino acids are dominant and widespread constituents of insect oral secretions (regurgitants), serving the insect as biosurfactants in the digestive process. During feeding the conjugates may be introduced into damaged leaves and contribute there to the elicitation of plant defenses such as the induction of volatile biosynthesis. From gut segments of Spodoptera exigua, Mamestra brassicae and Agrotis segetum 23 bacterial strains were isolated, ten of which were able to synthesise typical lepidopteran N-acylamino acids from externally added precursors. Four strains, Providencia rettgeri, Ochrobactrum spec., Myroides odoratus and Acinetobacter sp. genospecies 11 were identified on the basis of their 16 S rDNA. The organisms displayed a very broad substrate tolerance, since fatty acids of different chain length and different degree of saturation were converted into N-acylamino acids. Moreover, most of the proteinogenic amino acids, but not glutamic and aspartic acid, were used as substrates. The dominant occurrence of fatty acids conjugated with glutamine may result from a preferred transport of glutamine from the hemolymph into the gut of the insects. The involvement of bacteria in the biosynthesis of compounds which play a pivotal role in the interaction of plants, herbivores and their predators adds a new trophic level to this complex network of interactions. Due to their short generation cycle and the ease of adaptation endosymbiontic bacteria may have an outstanding importance for the coevolution of plant-insect interactions.
Copyright © 2000 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
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- The Hepta-? -Glucoside Elicitor-Binding Proteins from Legumes Represent a Putative Receptor Family
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- Identification of the Arabidopsis thaliana Flavonoid 3'-Hydroxylase Gene and Functional Expression of the Encoded P450 Enzyme
- Gut Bacteria May Be Involved in Interactions between Plants, Herbivores and Their Predators: Microbial Biosynthesis of N-Acylglutamine Surfactants as Elicitors of Plant Volatiles
- Different Signaling Pathways Are Involved in CCKB Receptor-Mediated MAP Kinase Activation in COS-7 Cells
- Non-Specific Depurination Activity of Saporin-S6, a Ribosome-Inactivating Protein, under Acidic Conditions
- Molecular Evolution in the Hypervariable Regions of Fetuin: Comparison between Human and African Green Monkey Fetuin
Articles in the same Issue
- To Our Authors, Readers and Subscribers
- Highlight: Plant Biological Chemistry
- The Structural Properties of Plant Peroxisomes and Their Metabolic Significance
- Active Oxygen Species as Mediators of Plant Immunity: Three Case Studies
- Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase Expression in Tobacco Following Recovery from Gene Silencing
- Two Differentially Regulated Class II Chitinases from Parsley
- IAA-Synthase, an Enzyme Complex from Arabidopsis thaliana Catalyzing the Formation of Indole-3-Acetic Acid from (S)-Tryptophan
- Topology Studies of the Chloroplast Protein Import Channel Toc75
- Plant Methionine Synthase: New Insights into Properties and Expression
- The Hepta-? -Glucoside Elicitor-Binding Proteins from Legumes Represent a Putative Receptor Family
- Octadecanoid and Jasmonate Signaling in Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) Leaves: Endogenous Jasmonates Do Not Induce Jasmonate Biosynthesis
- Metabolic Activity Decreases as an Adaptive Response to Low Internal Oxygen in Growing Potato Tubers
- Structure-Activity Relationships of Synthetic Analogs of Jasmonic Acid and Coronatine on Induction of Benzophenanthridine Alkaloid Accumulation in Eschscholzia californica Cell Cultures
- Identification of the Arabidopsis thaliana Flavonoid 3'-Hydroxylase Gene and Functional Expression of the Encoded P450 Enzyme
- Gut Bacteria May Be Involved in Interactions between Plants, Herbivores and Their Predators: Microbial Biosynthesis of N-Acylglutamine Surfactants as Elicitors of Plant Volatiles
- Different Signaling Pathways Are Involved in CCKB Receptor-Mediated MAP Kinase Activation in COS-7 Cells
- Non-Specific Depurination Activity of Saporin-S6, a Ribosome-Inactivating Protein, under Acidic Conditions
- Molecular Evolution in the Hypervariable Regions of Fetuin: Comparison between Human and African Green Monkey Fetuin
