ARS | Publication request: MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF WHEAT RESPONSES TO ATTACK BY THE HESSIAN FLY

Submitted to: Entomological Society of America Regional Meetings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 15, 2002
Publication Date: February 23, 2003
Citation: Williams, C.E. 2003. Molecular characterization of wheat responses to attack by the hessian fly. In: Proceedings of the Entomological Society of America Regional Meetings. Entomological Society of American-North Central Branch, March 23-26, 2003, Madison, Wisconsin. Available: http://esa.ent.iastate.edu/confreg/?gridaction=viewonepresentation&year=2003 &presnum=066

Technical Abstract: Interactions between wheat and the Hessian fly exhibit similarities to many well-characterized plant pathogen interactions in dicots. Events leading to resistance are triggered by a typical gene-for-gene recognition that results in death of first-instar larvae. Yet, the mobility and feeding mechanisms of the larvae introduce variables that may require specialized plant defense pathways distinct from those used against of both microbes and chewing insects. Expression profiles were compared for a set of wheat genes that are related to defense-response genes activated against microbial attack in dicots. Only a few of these genes were specific to incompatible interactions in resistant, Hessian fly-infested wheat plants. Similarly, genes characteristic of responses to wounding by caterpillars showed little change in expression. A gene-discovery strategy yielded 115 wheat sequences that responded to attempted feeding by first-instar Hessian fly larvae. Only a subset of these responded in interactions between wheat and fungal or aphid-transmitted viral pathogens. These analyses suggest that the wheat/Hessian fly interaction encompasses previously characterized as well as novel mechanisms of resistance.