Defending plants against the World’s most pesticide-resistant insect, Myzus persicae: A role for calcium
T. VINCENT (1), M. Avramova (1), J. Canham (1), P. Higgins (1), M. Giolai (1), S. Mugford (1), M. Pitino (1), M. Toyota (2), S. Gilroy (2), T. Miller (1), S. Hogenhout (1), D. Sanders (1) (1) John Innes Centre, United Kingdom; (2) University of Wisconsin - Madison, U.S.A.

Myzus persicae (the green peach aphid) holds the Guinness World Record as the most resistant insect to pesticides, documented as being resistant to 71 different varieties, and acts as a vector for over 100 plant viruses. Upon perception of M. persicae, plants activate pattern-triggered immunity, a pivotal part of which is hypothesised to be calcium signalling. However, the mechanism by which this works is still largely unknown. Using the latest in vivo imaging techniques, we have been able to visualise in real time a plant calcium burst around the site of aphid feeding, with high spatial and temporal resolution. This burst is extremely rapid, placing calcium release as one of the first events in the plant-aphid interaction. We have also shown that it is reliant on vacuolar calcium stores, with loss of TWO PORE CHANNEL 1 (TPC1) significantly reducing the calcium burst, and over-activation of the channel greatly enhancing it. Furthermore, we have linked the calcium release to specific feeding phases of M. persicae and have evidence that feeding is significantly altered on mutants of TPC1. Our current work centres on identifying additional channels that contribute to this response and identifying the downstream targets of the signal. Our results suggest that calcium signalling via TPC1 significantly contributes to aphid performance on plants, and may hold the key to understanding the role of such signalling in the plant defence response.

Abstract Number: C21-3, P19-709
Session Type: Concurrent