Transcriptional response of a target plant to benzoxazinoid and diterpene allelochemicals highlights commonalities in detoxification

Knoch, Eva ; Kovács, Judit; Deiber, Sebastian; Tomita, Keisuke ; Shanmuganathan, Reshi; Serra Serra, Núria; Okada, Kazunori ; Becker, Claude ; Schandry, Niklas (2022): Transcriptional response of a target plant to benzoxazinoid and diterpene allelochemicals highlights commonalities in detoxification. BMC Plant Biology, 22: 402. ISSN 1471-2229

Abstract

Background
Plants growing in proximity to other plants are exposed to a variety of metabolites that these neighbors release into the environment. Some species produce allelochemicals to inhibit growth of neighboring plants, which in turn have evolved ways to detoxify these compounds.

Results
In order to understand how the allelochemical-receiving target plants respond to chemically diverse compounds, we performed whole-genome transcriptome analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana exposed to either the benzoxazinoid derivative 2-amino- 3H-phenoxazin-3-one (APO) or momilactone B. These two allelochemicals belong to two very different compound classes, benzoxazinoids and diterpenes, respectively, produced by different Poaceae crop species.

Conclusions
Despite their distinct chemical nature, we observed similar molecular responses of A. thaliana to these allelochemicals. In particular, many of the same or closely related genes belonging to the three-phase detoxification pathway were upregulated in both treatments. Further, we observed an overlap between genes upregulated by allelochemicals and those involved in herbicide detoxification. Our findings highlight the overlap in the transcriptional response of a target plant to natural and synthetic phytotoxic compounds and illustrate how herbicide resistance could arise via pathways involved in plant-plant interaction.

• Doc-Type: Article (LMU)
• Organisational unit (Faculties): 19 Biology
• DFG subject classification of scientific disciplines: Life sciences
• DFG: Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - 491502892