Recently, team for economic crop pest monitoring and control, IPP of CAAS, made advances in research on the homoterpenes biosynthetic pathways of indirect upland cotton defense. The results entitled “Identification and functional analysis of two P450 enzymes of Gossypi-um hirsutum involved in DMNT and TMTT biosynthesis” was published online by Plant Bio-technology Journal.

Homoterpenes are common herbivore-induced plant volatiles of cotton, which can attract predators and parasitoids to control target insect pests effectively. And also, Homoterpenes are important complements of environmental-friendly pest control strategies. In this study, RNA-Hiseq, SPME-GC-MS, yeast heterologous expression and enzymatic assay technologies were employed. The results elucidated that GhCYP82Ls were key genes in manipulating bio-synthesis of homoterpenes (DMNT and TMTT) of cotton. It was also suggested that relative expression of GhCYP82Ls were highly increased from cotton plants injured by leaf-chewing caterpillar Helicoverpa armigera or piercing-sucking hemipteran Apolygus lucorum. Moreo-ver, DMNT and TMTT regulated by GhCYP82Ls could elicit strong electrophysiological and behavioral responses of parasitic wasp Microplitis mediator of H. armigera and Peristenus spretus of A. lucorum. All the data provided a new strategy to regulate volatile metabolic pathways and develop new insect-resistant cotton varieties.

LIU Danfeng is the first author of this paper, and the corresponding author is Prof. ZHANG Yongjun. This work was supported by the National Key Basic Research Development Pro-gram and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

More details are available on the link bellow:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.12797/full