BioProject

Soybean is one of the main sources of oil worldwide, and the cotton bollworm [Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner)] is one of the common herbivores seriously affecting soybean production. More...

Soybean is one of the main sources of oil worldwide, and the cotton bollworm [Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner)] is one of the common herbivores seriously affecting soybean production. After being attacked by herbivores, multiple signaling patheways will be triggered in plants, which induces the production of toxic, repellent, or anti-digestive compounds. Genetic engineering and breeding of resistant plant lines are the most effective and environmentally friendly approaches to control herbivores and improve the performance of plants. This study focuses on founding changes genes and proteins in soybean defense response induced by H. armigera. Illumina Solexa sequencing platform and iTRAQ were used for the comparative analysis of transcriptome and proteome profiles in the leaves of Tianlong 2 (a cultivated soybean susceptible to herbivores) and ED059 (a wild soybean resistant to herbivores) in response to infestation by H. armigera. Transcriptome data show that 2073 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were uniquely expressed in ED059 compared with those in Tianlong 2 after 24 h of H. armigera treatment. Based on gene ontology classification of these 2073 DEGs, we identified 233 DEGs corresponded to various signaling pathways, including protein kinases, transcriptional factors, hormone biosynthesis and signal transduction pathways. In addition, a large number of genes related to antinutritive or toxic proteins were special induced in ED059. By combining the gene expression at the transcriptomic and proteomic levels, results reveal that no significantly high correlation was detected between the expression of mRNAs and proteins. Functional analysis of three candidate genes was accomplished by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in Arabidopsis thaliana, and a MYB transcription factor 109 (MYB109) was identified with herbivore defense function in ED059. This study provides insights into the identification of the potential genes and proteins involved in herbivore defense, and a possible understanding of the herbivore defense mechanism in a wild soybean by combining analysis of transcriptome and proteome data. Moreover, a novel gene associated with herbivore resistance function was identified and validated. Overall design: Totally four samples, two treatments and two genotypes. Less...