Combined transcriptome and metabolome analyses to understand the dynamic responses of rice plants to attack by the rice stem borer Chilo suppressalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Abstract

BackgroundRice (Oryza sativa L.), which is a staple food for more than half of the world’s population, is frequently attacked by herbivorous insects, including the rice stem borer, Chilo suppressalis. C. suppressalis substantially reduces rice yields in temperate regions of Asia, but little is known about how rice plants defend themselves against this herbivore at molecular and biochemical level.ResultsIn the current study, we combined next-generation RNA sequencing and metabolomics techniques to investigate the changes in gene expression and in metabolic processes in rice plants that had been continuously fed by C. suppressalis larvae for different durations (0, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h). Furthermore, the data were validated using quantitative real-time PCR. There were 4,729 genes and 151 metabolites differently regulated when rice plants were damaged by C. suppressalis larvae. Further analyses showed that defense-related phytohormones, transcript factors, shikimate-mediated and terpenoid-related secondary metabolism were activated, whereas the growth-related counterparts were suppressed by C. suppressalis feeding. The activated defense was fueled by catabolism of energy storage compounds such as monosaccharides, which meanwhile resulted in the increased levels of metabolites that were involved in rice plant defense response. Comparable analyses showed a correspondence between transcript patterns and metabolite profiles.ConclusionThe current findings greatly enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of induced defense response in rice plants against C. suppressalis infestation at molecular and biochemical levels, and will provide clues for development of insect-resistant rice varieties.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-016-0946-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Combined De Novo Transcriptome and Metabolome Analysis of Common Bean Response to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli Infection

“…Unbiased modern high-throughput technologies such as combination of metabolomics and transcriptomics are required to improve our understanding of the plant-fungus interactions in common bean. Such combined approaches have recently resulted in the elucidation of different pathways in plants such as reprogramming of metabolites in chickpea roots in response to FO [12], understanding system responses to brown planthopper and rice stem borer infestation in rice [26,27]. Considering the amount of work done in model plants and other plant species infected with FO, it is important to understand the metabolic changes, transcriptional regulation, or physiological responses of bioactive and signaling compounds during infection of common bean with FOP.…”

Dark period transcriptomic and metabolic profiling of two diverseEutrema salsugineumaccessions

“…The use of combined transcriptome and metabolome analyses have been successfully utilized to identify novel genes and enzymes in plant metabolite biosynthesis pathways (Boke et al, 2015; Sumner et al, 2015). In addition, this approach has also provided insights into pathways that are affected by gene mutation (Etalo et al, 2013; Masclaux-Daubresse et al, 2014; Page et al, 2016; Satou et al, 2014), that are related to responses to biotic stresses (Gurkok et al, 2015; Liu et al, 2016), and abiotic stresses (Bielecka et al, 2014; Hamanishi et al, 2015).…”

Herbivore‐induced rice resistance against rice blast mediated by salicylic acid

“…). The results for C. suppressalis are consistent with those of a previous study in which C. suppressalis infestation induced up‐regulation of a number of JA‐ and SA‐related genes (Liu et al ., ). The results with N. lugens are also consistent with those of a previous study in which the planthopper S. furcifera induced the accumulation of JA and SA in rice plants (Kanno et al ., ).…”

“…The phytohormones JA and SA are involved in plant defense against attack by insects and pathogens (De Vos et al, 2006;Stam et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2016). JA and SA contents were determined in 3-week-old rice plants that had been infested with C. suppressalis, C. medinalis or N. lugens as described in the previous section except that the plants were not treated with the fungus in this experiment.…”

“…oryzae (Liu et al ., ; Ning et al ., ). Over the past three decades, a large number of studies have been conducted to investigate the molecular and genetic basis of rice defense against insect herbivory (Chen et al ., ; Cheng et al ., ; Fujita et al ., ; Liu et al ., ; Jing et al ., ) and diseases (Wilson & Talbot, ; Liu et al ., ; Ning et al ., ). Previous studies indicated that rice plants have evolved an immune system against disease infestation, mainly including pathogen‐associated molecular pattern (PAMP)‐triggered immunity (PTI) and effector‐triggered immunity (ETI) (Liu et al ., ).…”