Nicotiana attenuata Genome Reveals Genes in the Molecular Machinery Behind Remarkable Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity

microRNA390 modulates Nicotiana attenuata's tolerance response to Manduca sexta herbivory

“…Under field conditions, N. attenuata plants face an unpredictable level of herbivore attack every year (Baldwin, 2001 ; Pandey & Baldwin, 2007 ; Pradhan et al, 2020 ). The composition of the herbivore community is known to vary across years and may be responsible for the substantial amount of adaptive plasticity observed in this species (Navarro‐Quezada et al, 2020 ). During the 2019 field season, when OEmiR390 plants were exposed to the natural herbivore community, which at the time of the experiments did not include a significant Manduca component, we saw only a mild fitness consequence of herbivory, likely due to the overall paucity of folivory.…”

“…Nicotiana attenuata is an annual plant native to the southwestern United States and is an ecological model as its natural history and its interactions with herbivores, pollinators, and microbes have been extensively studied not only under glasshouse conditions but also in its natural habitats (Baldwin, 2001 ; Navarro‐Quezada et al, 2020 ). This wild tobacco species grows in the agricultural primordial niche: the post‐fire habitat.…”

“…The plant is colonized by AMF (Pandey et al, 2018 ) and is also attacked by pathogens such as Fusarium and Alternaria species (Schuck et al, 2014 ). Furthermore, N. attenuata faces an unpredictable attack by a diverse suite of herbivore species, which is thought to represent an important ecological challenge for this species; consequently, N. attenuata recruits several direct and indirect defenses (Baldwin, 2001 ; Navarro‐Quezada et al, 2020 ). Additionally, N. attenuata has a remarkable capacity to tolerate herbivore attack to minimize fitness losses (Schwachtje et al, 2006 ).…”

“…N. attenuata 's resistance and tolerance strategies, the signaling cascades, and defense‐related secondary metabolites have been well studied. Moreover, the composition and role of the RNA‐directed RNA polymerase (RdR), DCL, and AGO components of the smRNA machinery during adaptation to these natural challenges have also been studied (Navarro‐Quezada et al, 2020 ). The composition of miRNAs in N. attenuata's genome (Xu et al, 2017 ) and its reprograming during herbivore attack, pathogen infection, and AMF colonization are also known (Pandey et al, 2018 ; Pradhan et al, 2017 , 2020 ).…”

Evolutionary metabolomics of specialized metabolism diversification in the genusNicotianahighlights allopolyploidy-mediated innovations inN-acylnornicotine metabolism

“…The intense research on Nicotiana species is further reflected into the very large set of reference transcriptome and genome resources publicly available for species of this genus ( 31 ). As recently reviewed ( 32 ), the phytochemistry of several species of this genus, in particular that of the coyote tobacco Nicotiana attenuata , a flagship model organism for the chemical ecology of plant-insect interactions ( 33 ), has been extensively studied with notable focus on alkaloids, mono/sesquiterpene volatiles, O -acyl sugars or 17-HGL diterpene glycosides. Finally, half of the species of the Nicotiana genus are allopolyploids of different ages and for some of them, the closest extant diploid progenitors have been mapped, thereby providing a phylogenetics framework to study allopolyploidy-mediated contributions to phenotypic trait evolution ( 34 ).…”